One Sky
by water blue panda
Summary: The revival of the Arcobaleno have sent the Vongola to Destiny Islands. Catapulted into a new quest to go home, Tsuna and Sora have to work together if things can go back to the way they were before.
1. Drawing Days

**Chapter 1: Drawing Days**

_An angel without wings once said to me, "I lost the map that would lead me back home."_

* * *

All Tsuna remembered was Uni and Gamma disappearing in a brilliant white flash. Were they all going back to the past? What would happen to everyone else that will stay in the future? Will Byakuran still be around? So many questions were swirling around in his head now that he was literally left in the darkness. He felt cold. Was he dead now? Was it because he was the holder of the Vongola Sky Ring? For some reason, his back was getting drenched. Was he that nervous?

"Wha—Hey!" Tsuna started flailing around. He wasn't sweating. Instead, he was in an unknown body of water somewhere. "Where am I!"

His vision cleared, and what used to be an endless abyss of darkness gave way to a beautiful blue sky with one or two small clouds dotting its surface. Tsuna smiled at the thought that the battle of the future was now over and that he and his friends were back home. Was he in the school swimming pool?

"Crap!" Tsuna gasped before realizing that he couldn't swim. Up until now, he was simply floating, but upon the realization, he stopped. Tsuna started splashing about in the water and taking in all the air he could breathe. '_What do I do!_' Tsuna panicked. '_Reborn isn't here! What should I do!_'

Tsuna immediately started sinking, but then he started thinking of that memory of everyone trying to teach him how to swim. He knew that following Ryohei's example would just drown him quicker and he could barely remember what Haru and Yamamoto were saying at that time.

_TENTH!_

Now he remembered what Gokudera was struggling to teach him! He used what looked like a triangular protractor, was wearing glasses, and was scribbling…stuff onto a whiteboard. _I have to think like he does!_ Tsuna concluded. However, all that came to mind was…

_Juudaime! Juudaime!_

"Juudaime!" Gokudera shouted when he spotted Tsuna drowning in the distance. He quickly and flawlessly swam over to Tsuna and grabbed him by the hood. "Juudaime! Don't worry!" He assured him with a grin. "You'll never drown with me by your side!" He continued to keep his enthusiastic demeanor despite the fact that he could barely pull Tsuna along.

"G-Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna exclaimed, surprised by such a sudden appearance. Gokudera always shouting his title was a bit worrying, but he was always there to support him, so it didn't really matter. He also wasn't drowning anymore, and that was a relief.

"Juudaime! We're gonna get to shore in no time!"

Shore? Tsuna briefly looked around and saw that he wasn't in the deep end of the Namimori Junior High swimming pool. Where there was supposed to be concrete was actually replaced by tropical palm trees and white sand.

Suddenly, something caught onto his leg. It snaked around his ankle before it started pulling him down into the water. Gokudera took a large breath of air before his head sank beneath the water. He looked up at Tsuna, who was now aware of what was happening to his right hand man, but could do nothing to help because he was drowning once more. Realizing he didn't have much time before he needed another breath, Gokudera reached for the box containing the integral piece of the Sistema CAI.

"No one messes with Skull!" a childish sounding voice called out.

Gokudera briefly wondered where he had heard the name before, but he cut his thoughts short when he was being swiftly pulled out of the water. He was thankful to be still be breathing but his mind went dizzy from being flung out so suddenly. He was suspended upside-down by what appeared to be an octopus tentacle. He was wondering why this was so familiar to him, but nonetheless, he resolved to end the battle.

"I won't…let you harm him!" Gokudera exclaimed at his assailant, in spite of his blurred vision.

Gokudera quickly brought his storm-imprinted Vongola ring to one of his boxes and grinned, practically assured of his victory. However, when his red box opened up, it revealed two pairs of small, but razor-sharp claws aimed directly for his face.

"Nyaaaaa!" Uri hissed with the same annoyed look it almost always had.

"Dammit! Stupid cat!" Gokudera yelped as he tried to escape the ferocious swipes of his feline companion. "While you're here…" Gokudera grabbed Uri by his ribcage. "Make yourself...USEFFUL!" He tossed Uri at wherever the owner of the octopus happened to be.

Meanwhile, Tsuna was still drowning, but he managed to get to shore. "G-Gokudera-kun!" He panted, out of breath from his near-death experience. He quickly scrambled around his pockets for the Hyper Dying Will pills, but was running out of time as Gokudera was flung into the air by the enormous octopus with Uri following soon after.

"You see! I'm a much better fighter than the likes of the tenth Vongola and his so-called guardians!" Skull announced with pride. "I'm going to get you back for all hose times you humiliated me in front of the Arcobaleno!" He stared thoughtfully at Gokudera, who had fallen into the water, together with Uri. "Whoops. Looks like I didn't get the tenth Vongola…" Then he raised a fist high in the air. "But getting one of his guardians is just as good!"

"N-No!" Tsuna shouted. "This can't be happening! Where are my pills!"

Suddenly, a rush of air seemed to pass by Tsuna. The Vongola boss quickly whirled around to see what it was, but saw nothing behind him. There was, however, a shadow that managed to jump high into the air and loomed far above Tsuna's head. It was vaguely in the shape of a person, but it was also wielding a very strange weapon. It was almost like the combination of a sword and…something else. The figure brought down his weapon onto the large octopus, but had somehow missed Skull.

Gokudera burst out of the water, gasping for air. He floated at the surface, shouting, "Who the hell is that kid?"

"Introductions later!" The spiky-haired teen shouted at him. He quickly jumped away from one of the octopus' tentacles and countered with another strong, downward strike to its head. "You have to be faster than that if you want to beat me!"

"Dumb brat!" Skull whined as he jumped off the octopus' head and onto shore. "Hey! You better stop mussing with us or I'm going to have to bring out the big guns!"

Tsuna, who was still on the shore and currently emptying out his jacket's pockets, looked over to where Skull was standing. Casually, he asked, "Hey, Skull, have you gotten taller?"

"Idiot! Of course I have! When I appeared in this strange land, I was no longer the size of an infant! With my true size, I'm able to unleash all the power I have on anyone who opposes me!" Skull shouted with arrogance. "Now!" He shouted towards his pet octopus. "Eliminate that spiky haired twit!"

"Hey, who're you calling a twit!" The teenager shouted. One tentacle tried to get a hold of his weapon, but he quickly jumped several meters into the sky. As another tentacle reared up for another attempt to grab him, he righted himself in the air and tossed his weapon towards the octopus. It released a small glow when it impacted and knocked the creature onto its side while the object returned to its owner. "Piece of cake!" The warrior called out.

Tsuna stared at the teenager standing in front of him. '_He's at my age, but he hasn't been shot into Dying Will Form or anything like that. Just who is he?_' He paused for a second before wondering about the odd shape of his weapon. With a forced smile, he reached into his pants pocket and found the Dying Will pills. "Well, looks like I won't be needing these right—"

"Too cocky!"

The spiky-haired teenager whirled around and received a swift punch to his right cheek. With a shout of pain, he was knocked into the water while Skull laughed, "There's a reason I'm an Arcobaleno! When you get the upper hand, don't assume the battle's over!"

"Speak for yourself, bastard!" Gokudera yelled. He fired a burst of storm-powered flames at Skull, but the latter backflipped out of the way.

"Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna shouted. "You're okay!"

"Of course I'm okay! I wouldn't be a proper right-hand man if I wasn't!" the guardian assured him. "Now, let's finish this!"

"Fine by me!"

The spiky haired teenager emerged from the water, practically unscathed. Skull started to slowly back away from the three fighters. Gokudera was eyeing the boy with the unusual blade, but still kept his attention on Skull. Tsuna was conscious of the stranger, but considered him an ally, especially considering he helped them out despite not knowing who they were. Skull himself was looking around for someone.

"Hmph. I thought Reborn-senpai was with you guys. If he isn't here, then there's no point in fighting you people." He brought out an indigo-colored box, together with the indigo Arcobaleno pacifier and pressed them together. The hatch opened, and a motorcycle was formed from the cloud flames produced from the box. "Well, I'm out of here!"

The octopus, recovered from its knockout, retreated into the ocean and out of sight. While everyone was focused on the animal, Skull started up the motorcycle and rode off into the sky using the cloud flames.

"Hey! We're not done with you yet!" The brown-haired fighter shouted angrily as Skull made his escape. "Jeez, can you believe the nerve of that guy?" He angrily stamped his foot against the sand and looked towards the sky. "And I was starting to enjoy that fight too…"

Tsuna and Gokudera both took a glance at each other before staring back at the boy. Tsuna was a little concerned of what he would do next, but he forced a smile as he took a few steps forward. "H-Hey, thanks for helping us out just now."

The warrior turned around with a confused look on his face. But then he smiled and gave a thumbs-up as he turned around. "No problem! It's my job you know!" His smile faded as the other two returned his previous dumbfounded look. "Oh, so you don't know. Well, I'm pretty sure you'll figure it out. By the way, my name's Sora!"

"Hey! You're supposed to talk more in a more formal tone! And you're supposed to explain everything to Juudaime right now!" Gokudera demanded. While the Sistema CAI disappeared back into its box, his Storm Vongola ring burned with an intense red flame.

"Okay, _mom_…" Sora chuckled, much to Gokudera's annoyance. He turned towards Tsuna. "I'm assuming you're…Joo-die-mee, right?"

Tsuna smiled. "Well, that's just a title. My names Tsunayoshi Sawada, but everyone calls me 'No-good-Tsuna'. Of course, my friends would usually call me Tsuna."

Sora paused for a second before following up with, "Do you have some self-esteem issues or something?" He saw Tsuna shrug, but then he shrugged too. "Well, I guess there's nothing wrong with that." He turned towards Gokudera and rolled his eyes. "I guess I have to who you are too."

The option of unleashing Uri onto him was becoming more and more appealing, but he looked over to Tsuna and gave a sigh of irritation. "I'm Hayato Gokudera, the Smoking Bomb of the Vongola, the Tenth Storm Guardian, and Tsuna's right hand man." He paused before adding, "If you ever refer to Juudaime as 'No-Good-Tsuna', you will die."

Surprisingly, Sora was unperturbed by this announcement and crossed his arms with a smirk. "Well, it's safe to assume that we're all on the same side, right?" Tsuna and Gokudera were both silenced, not sure what to answer. "On second thought, just follow me. I'm pretty sure my friends will listen to what you have to say. Just follow me!" Sora took off, with Tsuna and Gokudera following soon after.

Gokudera ran close by Tsuna and whispered, "I don't trust him, Juudaime."

Tsuna gave a weak smile and answered, "Well, he helped us. I don't think he's a bad guy."

Gokudera gave a grunt of reluctant approval before running past Tsuna and catching up to Sora. He was still skeptical of this newfound ally, despite the fact that he had helped them earlier. He could just be another enemy that was trying to gain their trust. '_Regardless of whether or not he's an enemy, I'll protect Juudaime from whatever comes our way._'

Yamamoto found himself wandering the streets of an unknown place. This didn't bother him, as he assured himself that he would end up finding Tsuna and the others anyway. '_This happened when we were first transported ten years into the future, and we managed to find each other again. There's nothing wrong in thinking that it'll happen again, right_?' As he continued pondering, he came upon a staircase that had the perfect view of the sunset against a hazy orange sky.

"This kind of sunset reminds me of home…" He wondered out loud. "But we'll get home soon enough. I know we will." Yamamoto turned around after hearing footsteps coming his way. He found three other kids that were roughly his age who were looking at him with expectation. "Umm…hi?"

"You're not with Seifer and his gang are you?" The blond teen asked.

"Who's Seifer?" Yamamoto asked in return.

"Good, so you're not." The brown-haired girl replied. "If you ever come across them, be sure not to stick around."

"What are you saying, Olette? That would be just like running away!" The supposed leader of the group rebuked. "They say that Olette's the smart one, but anything she says will land you in hot water! So don't listen to anything she says!"

"You're the one that gets us in trouble Hayner!" Olette scolded. Then she turned towards the last one of the group. "Pence! Say something!"

Yamamoto simply listened to them bicker for a few minutes before heading down the stairs. However, he thought about how they reminded him of the Vongola family. He was surprised by how little people, or enemies for that matter, there were. However, he reached a small sandlot and was surprised what little there was here compared to every other place.

"This place is so empty and quiet…" He sighed. '_As much as fighting was dangerous, I'd almost prefer that to having to stick around in a place like this._' He then took out his Vongola box and pressed his ring to it. He chose to take out one of his swords imbued with the tranquil blue rain flame. "Oh well! If I'm here, I might as well practice!"

Yamamoto started brushing up on some of his earlier techniques without missing a step or slacking off. Whenever he trained, it would be with all of his strength. "First Form: Shajiku no Ame!" He leapt forward and thrust his sword forward into an invisible enemy. "Fifth Form: Samidare!" Cutting diagonally, he dropped the sword into his other hand before finishing the attack. "Eighth Form…" Yamamoto stopped himself. He lifted his sword in the air horizontally and gazed up at his sword, which reflected his eyes with the added blue rain flame. "It was only a few weeks, but it seems so long since I learned these." Instead of retreating into nostalgic depression, he smiled and regained a fighting pose. "The Shigure Soen Style is perfect and invincible!"

Four passers-by looked onward at his training. The leader, a teen with blond hair and a scarred face boldly stepped up. "Hey!"

Yamamoto turned around and looked at the small group. He smiled and waved before attempting to continue his training.

"Hey! You don't ignore Seifer like that, y'know!" A tanned and muscular teenager responded. "Seifer here is the best fighter here and don't you forget it!"

"Undefeatable." A silver-haired girl added.

"Damn straight," Seifer declared. "And this is our spot, so you better hurry and scram."

Yamamoto, still smiling, withdrew his weapon and said, "Okay!"

However, as Yamamoto began to walk off, Seifer eyed his sword as it disappeared. The sight of withdrawing one's weapon as such reminded him of that one kid with spiky brown hair and the oddly shaped sword. Despite his efforts, the strange boy had beaten him anyway. Seeing as he had already beaten other aspiring strugglers, he saw a new chance arise.

"On second thought, let's all see if you defeat me," Seifer proposed, much to the others' surprise. "If you win, you're the new Struggle champion. And if I win…" Seifer grinned. "…I get to keep that fancy sword of yours."

Yamamoto still smiled, unfazed. "Looks like I have no choice but to fight and win now."

Tsuna, Gokudera, and Sora were all on top of one of the smaller islands. This island had a unique palm tree that had grown in a horizontal manner so that it was hanging above the water. Gokudera and Tsuna were sitting on the trunk while Sora simply rested against the base.

"So…Sora," Tsuna started. "I know that this kind of place is tropical and stuff, but it would be nice to know what it's called."

Sora took a deep breath before explaining. "This place is called Destiny Islands. The island that we're on is just one of many that are apart from the mainland." Sora pointed outwards toward the ocean. "Even then, we're still a part of something much bigger." Sora then pointed upwards, towards the sky. "If you have the right vessel, you can depart from this world and go to many others. Those worlds are all full of many different people and new adventures just waiting to happen!" Sora realized he was starting to drift off topic and glanced back at the other two.

"I'll just assume that we're from one of the other worlds out there…" Tsuna sighed, only understanding a few bits of the explanation.

"But what we want to know is how we get back to our own world. Who knows what's going on back there…" Gokudera responded.

"Well, I wouldn't know how to deal with that," Sora replied. '_Donald and Goofy would be okay with me telling them right? They said I didn't have to meddle in the affairs of _other_ worlds. But it would be okay if they, well…meddle with ours right? Besides, it's for a good cause._' He held out his hand and materialized his weapon. "This is called the keyblade. I would use this to 'seal' the hearts of the worlds so that monsters called the 'Heartless' wouldn't destroy them."

"Sounds pretty skewed if you ask me," Gokudera grumbled. "For all we know, that could just be a theatrical trick you made using a box…"

"What box?" Sora asked. "Oh, you mean those things you used to fight with back then? Well, I don't have one of those. How do you use those? Those look kinda cool! I want to them in action!"

"Well, I don't think it's useful when it's not in battle…" Tsuna replied.

"You're right," Sora agreed, much to Tsuna's relief. "They probably don't do much in battle anyways." In response, to that, Gokudera tensed up. But Sora continued, aware of the verbal insult. "I mean, that weapon couldn't even catch that biker guy." Sora thought for a second. "But maybe it isn't the weapon's fault. It's probably because of the dork that has sloppy aim."

"You're practically asking for it," Gokudera growled, readying his ring and his box. He hopped off the tree trunk before glaring furiously at Sora.

"W-Wait Gokudera!" Tsuna pleaded. "He probably didn't mean it! I mean, this is just a big understanding! You don't have to fight!"

'_I have to be a strong right-hand man to Juudaime. Not only do I have to be one, but I also have to prove to others that I'm someone not to be messed with. I'll start by bashing this idiot's head in.'_ Gokudera fumed. "I don't have to fight, but I want to fight."

"Now you're talking!" Sora yelled.

The two both ran over to the beach close by, with Tsuna following. However, he ended up tripping and falling on the sand when he tried to jump off the small shack like the other two did. Lifting his head from the sand, he saw Gokudera and Sora take fighting stances. He somehow had to stop them!

"You do realize that I just wanted a simple spar right?" Sora asked, thinking his joke went a little too far.

"Despite that, there's still something I just don't like about you," Gokudera answered. "You've been disrespectful towards Juudaime, and that I can't forgive! I'll show you how big of a mistake you've really made!"

Gokudera pressed his ring onto the right box this time and let his small cannon clamp onto his arm. Then he opened up another box and slid the ammo inside. Sora, not missing a chance to strike, leapt forward and lifted his keyblade over his head in order to prepare for a strong downward strike. Gokudera quickly fired the cannon and a small blue explosion was made as soon as the blast made contact with the keyblade.

"If you keep charging into my attacks, this is going to be a quick fight," Gokudera yelled into the small obscuring cloud. He backflipped out of the cloud and promptly landed on his feet. "Is the fight over already?"

"Not even close!"

The keyblade, coated in light, emerged from the dissipating cloud as a projectile. Gokudera could easily register the movement and stepped aside. The keyblade landed in the sand while the smoke cleared, leaving Sora in a thoughtful pose.

"Hey, what was that you just pulled?" Sora asked. "You slowed me down didn't you?"

Gokudera gave a nod. "That's the power of the rain flame. And there's plenty more of where that came from!"

As Gokudera readied the cannon, Sora had the keyblade return to his hand in a small flash. But he also noticed the five rings on the former's right hand. The rings were burning with five different colorations: red, yellow, blue, green, and violet. He realized that these could possibly represent five different forms of ammunition. Sora then raised his keyblade over his head and cried, "Wind!"

Gusts of wind started to swirl around Sora in the shape of a sphere, but Gokudera fired a storm-flame powered blast in the hope that it would put it out. The keyblade wielder dodge rolled to the side and cast another spell. A large block of ice was conjured from the tip of the keyblade and flew straight towards the storm guardian.

"That's not gonna work!" Gokudera shouted, calling forth two of his shields to protect him. The block of ice scattered upon impact and landed in the sand in the form of several smaller ice shards. "My Sistema C.A.I. can cover almost all of my bases during combat. There's no chance you'll win against me!"

"I'll make you eat those words!" Sora rebuked.

Sora ran straight towards Gokudera while readying the keyblade. Gokudera proceeded to shoot out another red burst with a grin on his face. Victory was sure to come his way. However, it was wiped off his face when the storm flames diverged upon meeting the small whirlwind surrounding Sora. Sora jumped in the air and swung his keyblade downward with the full force of both of his arms. Gokudera summoned one of the shields to defend him, but the keyblade wielder cut through it almost instantly and the attack connected with Gokudera's torso, sending him flying a few meters.

"What was that about me winning?" Sora asked as the whirlwind slowly dissipated.

"You got lucky…" Gokudera panted. The whirlwind that Sora conjured did more than simply divert the burst of storm flames. The wind had given him several cuts upon his skin and small rips on his clothes. In addition, the strong attack of the keyblade had nearly broken one of his ribs. Gokudera had greatly underestimated his opponent.

Gokudera glared angrily at Sora while he loaded the ammunition containing the lightning property. Sora focused energy onto the keyblade, making it glow in a brilliant gold aura. The two raised their weapons at each other simultaneously. All was silent for a few moments until Sora rain towards Gokudera, shouting, "Sonic Rave!" Gokudera, in turn, fired the cannon while calling out, "Flame Thunder!"

A dark green explosion erupted from where the attacks collided, and the entire beach was obscured. Gokudera made use of his unique contact lenses and utilized their ability to detect even the slightest movement. With the lenses he was able to see two darkened silhouettes instead of just one. When the smoke finally cleared, Tsuna was in Hyper Dying Will form and had stopped the attacks from actually hitting each other. In one outstretched hand, he held the frozen remains of the lightning-quality burst that still had wisps of green smoke leaking out of one end. In the other hand, he was firmly holding the keyblade, with Sora looking at him in surprise. Strangely, the keyblade wasn't frozen and the arm that held it back started to bleed.

"Juudaime!" Gokudera exclaimed while running over.

"This pointless fight has got to stop," Tsuna responded sternly. The frozen lightning flame slowly evaporated into the air while he let go of the keyblade. Afterwards, the orange sky flame adorning his forehead burned out, and he collapsed onto the sand while clutching his left arm in agony. "That hurts…" Tsuna groaned.

"Alright, we'll stop fighting!" Gokudera agreed. Then he clutched Tsuna's arm and examined it. "Well, it's not broken, but you'd be better off not using it for a while. Looks like it was just immense blunt force." Gokudera glared at Sora, who just stood there. "Hey! You better apologize to Juudaime!"

Sora didn't say anything, but instead directed his keyblade at Tsuna's arm and calmly said, "Heal."

Both the keyblade and Tsuna's left arm were bathed in a tranquil green light. The blood slowly disappeared from Tsuna's arm and the Vongola boss immediately noticed the lack of pain. When the green light had disappeared, Tsuna waved his arm around in astonishment.

"That's amazing!" He thought out loud. "Did you use a sun flame or a lightning flame?"

"Well, it had the sun's 'activation' flame property," Gokudera mused. "But the weapon was glowing green, which should make it a unique form of the lightning flame. But the way the flame didn't seem to move about erratically could possibly categorize it as a cloud flame or a mist flame, don't you think?"

"Err…I don't remember that much in depth information about the flames…" Tsuna replied, embarrassed.

"Why are you guys talking about flames?" Sora asked, irritated about the lack of gratitude. "I didn't use a fire spell. I used a simple 'Cura' and that's it. All it does is heal."

"You idiot! How could you not know about flames despite the fact that you're user of some?" Gokudera retorted angrily. "How the hell does fighting work in this place anyway?" The guardian turned to look back at Tsuna, who now seemed pretty out of it. "And now look what you did to Juudaime! It probably messed with his brain! Do something about it!"

"I didn't do anything!"

"Hey!" Tsuna shouted. "I'd like it if you both stopped fighting for a sec. I'm just fine, and all I'm looking at is _that_." Tsuna pointed to the sky, and something smaller than an average seagull was flying about. Upon closer inspection, the flying being was a rather small yellow bird. "It's Hibird!"

"You mean that hedgehog jerk's pet?" Gokudera asked. "Juudaime, that means he's somewhere on the island! We have to follow it!"

"O-Okay!"

Both Tsuna and Gokudera ran in the direction Hibird was flying, while Sora tagged along. The latter was silently pondering on what kind of name "Hibird" was. Gokudera pushed through the door leading to the other side of the island but stopped for a moment.

"What's wrong Gokudera?" Tsuna asked.

"What if that jerk ends up attacking us just for disrupting his beauty sleep or something like that?" Gokudera responded with irritation. "I can almost hear him saying—"

"I'm gonna bite you to death."

It was barely noticed, but Gokudera heard Hibari's voice just beyond a large wooden tower and proceeded to follow it to the source. All three of them jumped into the water and ran to the other side of a small rock wall and saw a battle taking place between Kyoya Hibari and another stranger. Gokudera saw that Hibari's opponent had shoulder-length white hair and clothes that were less outlandish than Sora's. Although he was panting with exhaustion, he had intimidating, even cold eyes that seemed like they would see straight through anyone.

"I don't like the idea of you crashing onto my island," the white-haired boy shouted, while holding up a differently styled keyblade.

"And I don't like the idea of you not giving me a warm welcome," Hibari rebuked, raising his cloud flame-powered tonfas. Hibari was in a condition that was just as bad, if not worse. There was large cut on his cheek that was slowly but surely bleeding and his stance was shaky, as if standing was an ordeal for him. "Just try and make me mad," He continued, unfazed by his injuries.

"Alright, but you're asking for it!"

((Hey there everyone! Panda's here on once again! I apologize for not being to update Changing Symphony, but eighth grade SUCKS! I can only imagine what high school will be like. Gross. Oh yeah, I also plan on revamping the first one. Don't worry. It won't change that much. All I'm going to do is make it more literate and actually focus on character development. But I'd say that I'm only about halfway done with that.

Okay! About this fanfic! I ended up getting into Katekyo Hitman Reborn! At first it seemed redundant, but when it actually turned into a straight up shonen series, I was immediately hooked. I wanted to do a fanfic on this for some time, but didn't quite know how to put it together smoothly. Hell, it still isn't smooth. But anyway, my mind started wondering about the end of Chapter 279, and this chapter practically wrote itself. _Not really_.

There's one last thing. I'M SO SORRY ABOUT MY STORY ON HIATUS! I'M A **VERY** DISORGANIZED EIGHTH GRADER! MY PARENTS HARDLY LET ME USE THIS PIECE OF CRAP COMPUTER! I'M SORRY! PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGY! So, please look forward to another update of my stories! Please and thank you!))

**PS**: Thank you readers for still reading. You're the reason I still bother to write. I love you all!


	2. Friend

**Chapter 2: Friend**

_Don't lose hope, no matter what harsh winds may blow your way. Remember that the world is on your side._

* * *

Riku ran towards Hibari with his unique keyblade raised and slashed at the guardian's ribcage. Hibari barely dodged by jumping to the side, but he winced when he had to land on his nearly broken leg. Riku seized his chance and tried to aim for Hibari's face this time. The guardian was slow to pick up the attack, but he raised one of his tonfa to block the incoming keyblade.

"Too slow!" Riku called out.

Riku's keyblade collided with the tonfa with a massive downward strike. Hibari couldn't completely block the attack and was knocked down to the sand as soon along with receiving another cut on his other cheek. Shakily, but quickly, Hibari got up and dodged another strike that was aimed for his legs. Although he was panting, he maintained his aloof expression as he took yet another fighting stance.

"If you're going to fight someone, go all out," he demanded. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move. He looked to his right, and saw Hibird perched contently on his shoulder. "We finally have someone in the audience now. Wouldn't you like to wow them?"

"D-Don't we count as people?" Tsuna asked to himself. '_But maybe he's pushing it. He's losing pretty badly. Maybe this will be one of the only fights he'll lose._' Tsuna turned towards Sora, who was observing quietly. "Hey, Sora. Shouldn't we stop them?"

Sora looked closer at their fight and noticed how Riku was putting more effort into his fighting than usual. "Well, I don't think we should." He looked at Tsuna's dumbfounded countenance and smiled. "Riku's the kind of person that wouldn't put that much effort into something unless he really enjoyed it. I'd say that he's really getting into fighting with your Hibari-person."

Tsuna then looked at Gokudera for a second, who quickly noticed the notion. "Hey, Juudaime, do you really think that jerk's actually going to lose this battle?" He continued, despite the lack of an answer. "Then again, he's always managed to get past anything without a hitch. Either way, the outcome's something to look forward to."

"Burn!" Riku called out. He outstretched one of his hands and a large fireball appeared and was aimed straight for Hibari.

Hibari swiftly dodged, and then he pulled out one of his boxes. He pressed his ring to it and called out a violet-colored hedgehog. The hedgehog inflated to twice its owner's size and blocked another fireball. However, when a third fireball was shot out, Hibird instinctively flew away. Unfortunately, the fireball swerved when it was about to collide with the hedgehog and began to speed towards Hibird.

"Damn…" Hibari hissed. He jumped right in front of Hibird and took the large fireball head on while the small yellow bird proceeded to fly away. Neither he nor his clothes were on fire as everyone thought he would be, but he collapsed on the sand, unconscious.

"Dammit! That wasn't supposed to happen!" Riku shouted as he rushed forward towards Hibari.

The violet hedgehog now stared at its owner with a dumbstruck looks on its face. Then it turned to face Riku, who now stopped dead in his tracks. He expected its expression to change to that rage, but tears started forming in the animal's eyes along with cheerless soft wines. "KYAAAAAAHHH!"

"What the hell?" Everyone seemed to shout all at once.

The hedgehog started to glow and expand rapidly while its shrieks filled the air. Riku turned around and started running to try and avoid the spikes that seemed to be pointing towards him. The expanding hedgehog had enveloped Hibari's unconscious body, and he disappeared in the obscuring needles.

"What's happening!" Tsuna shouted as he started to back away, with fear starting to replace his previous uncertainty.

"Hell if I know!" Gokudera answered in a rushed manner. He took Tsuna's arm and they both ran off as one of the masses of spikes was starting to approach them. "Run, Juudaime!"

"I don't think you need to tell him!" Sora responded. He looked back, and stopped running towards the large wooden door connecting the two main areas of the island.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Gokudera asked as he too, turned around in curiosity.

The hedgehog was idle, but it was still as large as nearly half the island that they were all on. Riku was nowhere to be seen, but neither was Hibari for that matter. They all looked at the large, unmoving mass of needles.

"How long do you think they're going to be there?" Sora asked.

"They're probably going to be there until Hibari-san wakes up," Tsuna answered. "But…considering that last attack…" Tsuna hung his head low in despair. "Do you really think he _will_ wake up?" Tsuna jerked up when he felt Gokudera's hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about him," Gokudera assured him. "He's too proud to die."

* * *

When she woke up, she wasn't in that field. There as no trace of the beautiful flowers or the pristine lake that they surrounded. Mukuro wasn't even here. Instead, she found herself lying flat on the ground while the atmosphere was growing increasingly warmer. She curled up into a ball and laid her chin on her knees. Did she die? She wanted to doubt that possibility. Mukuro wouldn't let her die, would he? But what about Tsuna and the others? Where did they go?

"They…didn't leave me, did they?" She whispered to herself.

Being alone was okay. Most of the time, she found it hard to be with other people's company. Although, being left behind was a pain that was almost unbearable. When her parents had left her behind, the pain was dulled by the fact they pretended like she didn't exist. Despite that, she was clinging to the idea that she could become friends with the other Vongola guardians. And Tsuna, her boss, was even able to defend her from the get-go.

As it got considerably harder to breathe, Chrome was slowly losing hope. Perhaps she really was going to die. Mukuro couldn't save her this time. Suddenly, a shadow loomed over her. She turned around with an exasperated smile on her face, thinking it was Mukuro, but that smile slowly faded from her lips.

"What are you doing here?" Hibari asked. "And what's with your look?"

Chrome had hardly recognized that she was wearing a petite white dress; the kind that she would wear when she was talking with Mukuro in the illusionary realm. She stood up, but she backed away slowly from the Cloud Guardian.

"I'm not exactly sure why I'm here," Chrome answered Hibari. "I'm sorry for asking, but…do you know where Mukuro-san is?"

Hibari's usual aloof expression had changed to that of calm rage almost instantaneously. The mere mention of Mukuro's name had sent him into near flying anger. He instinctively put up his tonfas, causing Chrome to back away a few more steps out of fear. However, instead of striking, he simply turned around, while regaining his distant atmosphere.

"I don't know where Mukuro is, so you can go ahead and scram," Hibari responded coldly. "If you don't get out of here, I'm gonna bite you to death."

Chrome took a step closer to Hibari, despite the fear she held for him. "But—have you seen—GAH!" She keeled over, clutching her stomach as she began to cough violently. If she was in the real world, she would have immediately gone unconscious. However, since she was in the illusionary realm, all she could do now was to hope that the pain would stop.

"Aerith!" Yuffie cried out. "Aerith!" She ran over to the flower girl and started flailing her arms around. "It's that girl with the eyepatch! Something's wrong with her again!"

Yuffie and Aerith both ran over to Merlin's house, where an unknown girl was resting. According to Leon, she had suddenly appeared in the outskirts of the small village surrounding the castle. When he had brought her over to them, they decided that they would let Merlin watch over her while she was unconscious. She was alive, but she was still sleeping even after three days. Now, Aerith feared the worst for her.

"You have to help her! You're the only one with healing magic here!" Yuffie continued shouting with worry. She proceeded to kick the door open and led Aerith to the bed where the girl was resting. "Oh no! She's worsening!"

The girl with the eyepatch was practically writhing in pain. Aerith pulled up a chair next to her bead and put outstretched both of her hands above the girl's body.

"Curaga!" Aerith called out.

A peaceful green light enveloped the girl's body, but she was still moaning in agony. Aerith's eyes widened at a sight that would surely give her nightmares. The area where the stomach should be was slowly flattening out. It was as if her internal organs were disappearing altogether. Yuffie looked away in disgust and clutched her hands together as she was praying for the girl to live.

"Mukuro…san…"

Aerith barely heard the girl murmur before there was a sudden light coming from one of her hands. It was faint, but it was a small flame that was indigo in color and it was surrounding the ring that she wore. Before long, her internal organs started to reappear and she was sleeping soundly again. Despite all that, her expression was still that of pain and sadness.

"What the hell was that all about?" Yuffie asked, trying not to throw up after what she had just seen. "That was really, really, _really_ gross."

"At least she's okay," Aerith sighed in relief. "Though I doubt I did anything to help the situation. But we're still going to need you to watch over her. This probably won't be the last time it'll happen."

Yuffie shuddered, but she gulped and reluctantly said, "You got it."

* * *

Hibari tried to recall the hedgehog back into its box, but instead it simply returned to a normal size as it realized that its master was okay. It looked at Hibari one last time before it disappeared inside the box. Coincidentally, Hibird alighted on his shoulder once more. He noticed the sound of running, and he noticed a spiky-haired kid running his way.

"That hair is grounds for expulsion…" Hibari growled.

Sora, however, ran past Hibari and raised his Keyblade at Riku. "Riku, there's no need to fight this guy! There are two other people that landed on this island, but they're not bad people! You've got to stop!"

Riku reluctantly let his keyblade disappear and walked over towards Sora. "You don't mean those two over there, do you?" Riku motioned towards Tsuna and Gokudera, both of whom tensed up as soon as he glanced their way. The boy with brown hair was naturally bushy, which contrasted to Sora's manually spiky style,

"Yeah! That's them," Sora confirmed. "Their names are Tsuna and Gokudera. They're not from around here, as your can see from their funky clothing. They're from another world that we haven't heard of!"

Gokudera piped up, "Our clothes aren't funky! What the hell do you call those rags you're wearing! There's gotta be over 9000 belts, zippers, and pouches on you! And you call us funky!" Gokudera's patience was growing thin, but then again, it's been doing that ever since the two had contact with each other.

"Gokudera-san, calm down!" Tsuna pleaded. The last thing he wanted was to have yet another bout that will just leave them battered and bruised with nothing gained.

"Okay, how did they get to this island in the first place?" Riku added.

Tsuna stepped forward and sighed, "It's going to be a long story…" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hibari stand up. Tsuna knew better than to look again and meet Hibari's eyes or he would receive the threat of being "bitten to death".

"Count me out," Hibari responded harshly. He proceeded to withdraw his weapons as he calmly walked away into the packed white sand. Hibird sang a few lines of the Namimori Junior High theme before changing position from Hibari's right shoulder to his left.

"Hey!" Gokudera shouted after Hibari. When he saw Hibari stop, he continued. "You're in the middle of a place that you know absolutely nothing about. The least you could do is discuss what to do next with Juudaime! We can't afford to fly solo in a place like this!" Gokudera had hoped to get a response, but he was taken aback when Hibari instead continued to walk off.

Sora saw the exchange, or therefore, lack of. He eyed Gokudera as the storm guardian clenched a fist in suppressed fury. Then Sora turned to look at Riku, who had diverted his attention to looking at the sky and shoving his hands in his pockets out of lack of understanding of the whole situation. '_That guy with the animals acted just like how Riku used to. I wonder if he understands that too…_'

* * *

Seifer ran up and tried to bludgeon Yamamoto near his ribcage, but Yamamoto swiftly dodged it like it was nothing and knocked out about ten more orbs out of Seifer with another counter. Seifer growled angrily as he was getting up and jumped up into the air. He aimed his Struggle bat downward, but Yamamoto easily saw the attack coming, dodged it, and countered once again.

"Time's up!" Hayner laughed out. "So much for being the Struggle champ, huh Seifer?"

"Shut up!" Seifer shouted. He tossed the bat towards Vivi, who caught it before he stumbled over and fell on his face. He took out a rather large belt tried to hand it to Yamamoto while also trying his best not to lose his temper. However, Yamamoto simply stared at the accessory. "What are you doing standing around? Take it!"

"I just Struggled with you just so I can keep my Shigure Kintoki. I don't plan on staying here very long, so I guess I'm just going to move on," Yamamoto shrugged.

"Tch. Then this battle doesn't count." Seifer replied.

Both of them walked off the sandlot, with Seifer's group keeping quiet about the incident, and Yamamoto being greeted by Hayner's.

"Whoa! How'd you do it?" Pence asked in astonishment.

"You're only one of two people that's actually defeated Seifer!" Olette added.

"Oh shut up Olette!" Hayner demanded. "I would've beaten Seifer down in nothing flat if he would stop jumping!" He turned back towards Yamamoto. "Hey! How's about we show you a place no one else knows about?"

"You mean the clock tower?" Pence asked. "Everyone knows where it is."

"I mean the actual _place_!" Hayner shouted. He sighed in exasperation. "On second thought, maybe it's better if we show you."

"Okay," Yamamoto complied. "This could be fun!"

While he was being escorted to the clock tower, he looked around what they called Twilight Town. In other places, there seemed to be much more people than he thought there would be in such a small place. In addition, there were even some teenagers his age doing jobs like delivering letters or street performing for "munny". Despite his initial impression, the town was much more vibrant and bustling than the sleepy afternoon would provide. It was almost like Namimori Junior High. It always seemed like a normal middle school, but the activities of the Vongola mafia game they used to play was much more violent than he expected.

"Okay, we're here!" Hayner called out.

"Oh wow…" Yamamoto said in surprise. He looked upwards at the unique clock tower that stood before all of them. It was incredibly high compared to all the other building structures, and exponentially more magnificent.

"Okay, now you have to close your eyes while we show you the special place!" Olette said with almost giddy tone.

"You're such a girly girl, Olette," Hayner complained. "We always do this kind of crap when you're around."

"Shut up! At least it adds to the effect!"

Yamamoto agreed to keep his eyes closed while Olette took his hand and lead him to the "special place". He knew they had to take a spiraling staircase, and that they also had to walk up the staircase for a pretty long time to get there. Along with the sounds of machinery, he knew that they were inside the clock tower.

"And here we are!" Olette exclaimed. "Hey! You can open up your eyes now!"

Yamamoto proceeded to do so, but found a near blinding sunset that forced him to squint his eyes shut. However, when he managed to open them up, he found that the sunset was calming and much more beautiful than any sight he had seen before. However, something was missing.

"Hey guys!" Pence shouted. "I finally got them!"

Everyone turned around to see Pence with four ice cream bars. They were very light blue in color, with the tops being pure white. Hayner and Olette were excited to see the treat, while Yamamoto was of course, clueless of its importance.

"It's called sea-salt ice cream," Pence explained as he handed Yamamoto one. "It's salty, but it's also really sweet too! We love the stuff!"

"I can tell," Yamamoto replied. He licked it once, and found it to be a little it saltier than he expected. He recoiled a bit, but then he found that the taste was fonder of the taste than he realized. He ate up about half of it in nothing flat.

And so, the four of them watched the sunset in silence when they weren't eating their ice cream, and the time passed by slowly and peacefully. However, something kept bothering Yamamoto throughout it all. '_With the Arcobaleno revived, the other guardians and I should be able to go home in only a matter of time. But why can't I shake the feeling that something bad's going to happen?_'

* * *

Tsuna and Gokudera both explained their story to Riku and Sora in more detail while Hibari was still recovering from the fireball. Tsuna was still not sure if what he was saying would make sense, but Gokudera backed him up to boost his confidence. Riku didn't interject like Sora. Instead, he simply nodded between sentences as he pieced together the information. Sora, on the other hand, heard enough, so he let his mind wander for a bit.

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Riku started. "You," He pointed to Tsuna. "are the tenth boss of a mafia family known as the Vongola." Tsuna nodded. "And the guy right next to you is your 'Storm Guardian', right?"

"What do you mean 'this guy'! My name is Gokudera!"

"Whatever," Riku shrugged. "The guy that I accidentally knocked unconscious is your 'Cloud Guardian, and you and the rest of your guardians were sent to different worlds because of some strange power known as the Tri-Ne-Sette, which was activated ten years in your future."

"Umm…yeah, that's just about it," Tsuna replied. "But what I don't get is how we're still here when we should have returned to the past and back home without a hitch. Plus, there's the appearance of the Arcobaleno, which I don't understand."

"When you're facing danger after danger," Sora started. "you don't have to understand everything. Because if you did, then there would be no point fighting. That's what I knew when I was out saving the worlds! And look how I turned out! A-OK!"

Riku chuckled. "One, you made that up just now, and two, you're still a dork."

"Shut up, Riku!"

Riku turned to Tsuna and Gokudera, who straightened up as soon as his eyes met theirs. "You could look around the island if you want. I'm pretty sure the others won't get to the island this late. Plus, the adults don't bother coming around here, so you don't have to worry about staying here."

"Thanks…" Tsuna said glumly, but with gratitude. Immediately, he stood up and started to walk away.

"Hey! Juudaime! Wait up!" Gokudera called out as he followed suit.

When their backs were turned Sora nudged Riku with his shoulder. "You think they'd be much sadder than this. They've just been catapulted into a world they know nothing about, and there's a slim chance that they may not make it back home in one piece."

"You weren't," Riku replied. "But still…" Riku looked up towards the sky and noticed that it was slowly turning hazy. "I think that they're much more somber than we realize."

"Riku," Sora began. "Did you really intend to try and hit that guy's bird?"

Riku shook his head. "No, I didn't. But…" He took a look at his right hand and clenched it into a fist. "Something's been going wrong with my powers fro some reason. And I think it's connected to those guys."

Meanwhile, Gokudera caught up to Tsuna, who was all the way back at the beach where they first met Sora. Concerned, he put his hand on the young boss's shoulder. "Hey, Juudaime. What's bothering you?" He noticed that Tsuna didn't really say anything and just stood there, with his head hung low. Of course there were times when he happened to be this way, but as always, he was worried. "They didn't say anything bad did they? I mean I could go back and—"

"It's not that, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna answered with a melancholy tone in his voice. He looked towards the sun that was slowly setting in the distance. "What if…we never do get to get back home? What if we're stuck in this universe?" The sunset was calming, almost like the one he witnessed after pedaling to the top of a hill not too long after meeting Reborn. But no matter how much the something natural over here would resemble something he remembered back home, it would never give back that feeling of relief one would have when they knew that they were home sweet home.

"Hey, Juudaime, I've never seen you this depressed," Gokudera said, without the slightest idea of how to better the situation. "Look, I know that things seem grim, but you've got to stay strong. We'll just have to round up the Arcobaleno and the other guardians and then we can go home. That's all there is to it."

"But even then, I think we'd just get thrown into another adventure," Tsuna replied sadly. "I never really wanted to become the Vongola boss or get tossed around by every other foe I'll face."

"Then what do you want, Tsuna?" a familiar voice questioned.

Both Tsuna and Gokudera looked around to see where it came from, until Gokudera turned around and saw a small, obscured shape underneath the bridge connected the large island to a smaller one. Immediately they knew it was an Arcobaleno, but was he a friend or a foe? The figure stepped out of the shadows, and revealed himself to the two.

* * *

"What's wrong, Yamamoto?" Olette asked, waving her barren popsicle stick around.

"Well…" Yamamoto started. He looked at his own popsicle stick, and looked at it against the sun. "My friends and I used to do stuff like this all the time. So, it's like nostalgia." He sighed. "But we haven't really gotten into anything new. We're just fighting battles that seem like they'll never end."

"So…you travel?" Hayner asked, gaining a facepalm from Olette.

"Well, not traveling in the normal sense," Yamamoto grinned. "I'd tell you guys what my friends and I do, but it's supposed to be top secret."

"Oh come on!" Pence pleaded. "You were off to a good start. Nothing ever really happens here! We usually just hang out here and eat sea-salt ice cream until we explode!"

Everyone started laughing at Pence's statement, mostly because it was true. The half-hour that the four spent was mostly like that. The golden sun shone down, unmoving in the calming atmosphere of the world. They talked about the gains and losses of living in such an environment, but eventually someone would divert from the topic and introduce something new to the conversation. However, Yamamoto didn't know whether he should feel happy or sad about the similarity that the friends had to his own.

"_Hahaha…_"

Yamamoto saw something. For a few short moments there was a figure sitting right next to Hayner. The boy had spiky blonde hair that seemed to point all on one side. He was laughing just as happily as everyone else. His black and white clothes contrasted to how colorful everyone else dressed. Then as quickly as he had appeared, he vanished. As soon as that happened, the tension seemed to become thicker and thicker exponentially. A battle was soon to come.

"Where will he appear?" Yamamoto whispered under his own breath.

"Yamamoto?" Hayner asked. "Are you gonna puke up your ice cream or something?"

Yamamoto took out his Vongola box weapon and pressed his ring to it. As it was opening, he jumped into the air, much to everyone's surprise. Where his box would be, a large sword appeared, as well as one appearing on the other. The Rain Guardian lightly tossed his sword into the air, grabbed it in a backwards position and quickly spun around.

"Seventh Form: Shibuki Ame!" Yamamoto shouted.

The unseen attack collided with the blue whirlwind and caused an explosion in front of the clock tower. The three teenagers braced themselves against the resulting shockwave of power. The three of them looked in awe as Yamamoto was floating in the air with his weapons in hand.

"You have to get out of here!" Yamamoto commanded. "This battle won't get any safer!"

Hayner, Pence, and Olette all sped out of sight while Yamamoto smiled brokenly at his approaching opponent. As the smoke from the colliding attacks was disappearing, Yamamoto could gradually see the features of his enemy. He wielded guns as his weapon of choice, had permanent scars on his face, and, quite obviously, could float in the air without a hitch. The look he gave to Yamamoto was almost exactly that of a wild animal that had been starved for weeks, but the Rain Guardian had the feeling that his possible insanity was fueled by an outside source.

"I don't think it was very nice of you to attack those kids like that…" Yamamoto chuckled. Banter seemed like the only language to him.

"As if," His opponent replied with a gruff voice. It sounded somewhat playful, but still coated with malice. "You still have a lot to learn, so you're a kid too." He pointed his gun at Yamamoto, and wore a crazed grin. But then he tilted his head as he looked past Yamamoto. "Is that…a dog on your shoulder?"

Yamamoto looked to his right shoulder and found Jirou there. He smiled from ear to ear as he held his two swords in one hand and used the free one to pet the dog. "Yeah! This is my dog, Jirou! Isn't he cute? Everyone else likes to think so!" He scratched his dog behind the ear before leaving him be. "You can't use Cambio Forma like Kojirou, so I guess you're going to have to sit this one out."

The dog leapt to the side and onto the clock tower and sat patiently, in the same manner he would use to beg for food.

"Now that _that_'_s_ out of the way," the gunner started. "It's time to party."

"Isn't that a little clichéd?" Yamamoto replied with a shrug. He sped forward using the rain flame-powered sword in his left hand and struck with the larger sword held in his right hand. The gunner blocked the blow with the oddly-shaped guard of his weapons. He jumped back, as if he was using a platform instead of simply floating in the air. The gunner quickly aimed and then fired using cloud-flame powered bullets.

"Too slow," Yamamoto called out as he quickly sped out of the way.

Yamamoto was sure that he would eventually gain the upper hand, but then he saw his opponent smirk. Instinctively, he tried to fly off in a random direction but then something grazed his leg. There was moderate pain coming from his left leg, and as he looked down, there was a medium-sized gash in his calf. As the pain began to sink in, he winced. However, he took a second to look back and saw a mark on the clock tower. It was similar to a burn mark, but it was rather hard to see.

"So…your bullets can bounce off of solid surfaces?" Yamamoto inquired.

"It's pretty neat right?" the opponent answered.

"I guess so…" Yamamoto replied in return. "I think I might have to go all out on you."

* * *

"Reborn!" Tsuna shouted as the Arcobaleno stepped out of the shadow. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Ciaossu," Reborn greeted. "I was waiting until you would notice me, but even with your hyper intuition, you didn't bother looking in my direction. So, instead of waiting, I'm showing myself here."

"Reborn," Gokudera started. "Do you know what happened after the Tri-Ne-Sette was activated? Everyone's all split up, and the Arcobaleno are full-sized…" Gokudera took a second look at the small assassin and suddenly held a steely look in his eyes. "Wait…why aren't you an adult? When we encountered Skull earlier, he was the size of a regular human being…"

"So, what are you suggesting?" Tsuna asked with growing doubt. "Surely there's something we could work out—"

A loud bang resounded through the beach as a bullet was fired. The bullet had barely missed Tsuna's cheek and blood started to slowly seep out of the new wound. Tsuna looked at Reborn with confusion and noticed that the assassin was holding his infamous gun with smoke coming out of its barrel.

"Tsuna," Reborn began. "You've always been slow to pick up on things."

Gokudera said nothing as he took out his box and brought out the Sistema C.A.I. and pointed the cannon at Reborn. "Even if you are Reborn…I won't let you harm Juudaime!"

"Put that away, Gokudera," Reborn commanded as he pointed his gun at the Storm Guardian. "We wouldn't want anyone to get hurt with that."

Tsuna ran in-between them and waved his arms erratically. "Don't fight you guys! Gokudera, you said we had to work together! And Reborn! I don't know if this is just a training exercise or whatever, but you don't have to try and kill us for it!"

"Who said I was going to kill you?" Reborn stated, much to Tsuna's relief. Instead he fired one more time, at Tsuna's feet. "There's something I need you to do for me. However, you need to be in Hyper Dying Will Form for that to happen." He paused. "Either that, or I could knock you out and bring you to him."

"Reborn…" Gokudera hissed. "I'd rather not fight you, considering you're an Arcobaleno, but I have to in order to protect Juudaime!"

"Suit yourself," Reborn answered as he aimed his gun with a rather uncharacteristic smug look on his face.

* * *

((Hi guys! It's me again! Just a question: would you fans of the KHR series call it "Tri-Ne-Sette" or Tri-Ne-Set"? It's confusing which one is the real translation considering that it differs according to the translator. So, expect the next chapter earlier next time around, considering I'm finally on my week-long spring break. But take it with a pinch of salt, because vacation homework is a bitch. IT'S DANGEROUS! SEE YOU AGAIN DESU!~))


	3. Boys and Girls

**Chapter 3: Boys and Girls**

_In this world, where everyone is rushing in a hurry, we stopped upon seeing a shooting star._

* * *

Reborn fired shots repeatedly at Tsuna and Gokudera, with a seemingly endless magazine. Gokudera could avoid the bullets easily using his flying platform while Tsuna frantically searched for his Hyper Dying Will pills that were hidden somewhere in his pockets as he was covered by one of Gokudera's shields. Of course the tenth Vongola would've been able to find them in no time, but hesitation clouded his mind and vision. Could he really attack his mentor, Reborn?

"Juudaime!" Gokudera shouted hastily. "You have to hurry!" Gokudera tried to get a clear shot at the Arcobaleno, but he would always have to fly off to avoid getting riddled with bullets. '_Dammit! If only I didn't have to aim so precisely—that's it!_' Gokudera loaded up the cannon with new ammo and simply pointed it forward. "Now!"

A single, concentrated shot was fired from the cannon, but then it started to branch out into many different directions. Gokudera smirked as he looked back at his hand-cannon. '_The shot spreads out due to the cloud's propagation affinity. It's a surefire hit!_'

"Damn," Reborn stated which greatly surprised both Tsuna and Gokudera. "Leon," Reborn called out. His pet chameleon crawled out from behind his fedora hat and on top of Reborn's head. Just when the branched out bullet was about to reach him, Leon transformed into a makeshift parachute and Reborn was able to float high above all of them. "You're never going to beat me if you use such straightforward tactics."

"Take this!" Tsuna shouted as he sped right behind Reborn. He readied a strong punch to Reborn's face, but the Arcobaleno quickly floated away. He wanted to prepare an X-Burner attack, but Reborn aimed his gun again.

"Chaos Shot," Reborn called out calmly.

A single bullet of the focused yellow sun flame was fired from the pistol, and went directly past Tsuna. However, the bullet swerved around and went for Tsuna's back. Gokudera, seeing the attack tried to load up the rain ammunition, and looked for an opening to try and shoot the Arcobaleno. Tsuna didn't flinch after the bullet was fired, and instead turned around and held out his palm.

"I'm not going to fall for this again," Tsuna stated.

The bullet collided with his open palm, and it forced Tsuna back to the point where he had to use both of his hands to stop the mass of sun flames. Tsuna concentrated and froze the bullet at the cost of some of his own flames. However, Tsuna knew that Reborn wouldn't stay still for long. The Vongola boss turned around and saw Reborn in the air, but Leon had transformed from a parachute into a mallet.

"Too slow, No-Good Tsuna," Reborn taunted as he started to fall.

Reborn swung down Leon's mallet form at full force with both of his hands. The mallet collided solidly with Tsuna's scalp, which the Vongola boss could only describe as ten times worse than three years' worth of bullying at the hands of the entire student body of Namimori Junior High. Tsuna was knocked into the sand with the orange sky flame was extinguished from his head.

"That…hurt…" Tsuna understated, clutching his head.

"Juudaime!" Gokudera shouted. Then he turned around with pure rage in his head. "That's it! I don't care if you are the strongest of the Arcobaleno! I'm not going to let you hurt Juudaime any longer!"

"Bring it, Bakadera," Reborn taunted once more as he alighted on the ground. "I could use one fourth of my dying will flames and you still wouldn't be able to scratch me."

"I know I'll never be able to equal the strength Juudaime has…" Gokudera said wistfully as he looked at his boss. "…but I know I'll either protect Juudaime or die trying!"

Gokudera's resolve and dying will would burn with each passing moment, with the flames emanating from his rings continually growing as well. Gokudera aimed the hand-cannon at the Arcobaleno without hesitation and fired. Reborn simply aimed his pistol and fired a chaos shot. The two shots collided in an explosion that both of them had to brace themselves for.

"Dammit…I can't see anything…" Gokudera hissed as the smoke lingered. Gokudera applied his contact lenses and cautiously looked around. "If Reborn used Leon as a parachute again, the draft caused by the explosion would send them—"

"In a real battle, you don't have time to calculate everything," a voice that too deep to be Reborn's stated.

As the smoke cleared, Hibari leapt from behind Gokudera and raised his tonfas. Reborn fired a Chaos Shot under the veil of smoke, but Hibari had anticipated such a move and ran to the side to evade the attack.

"I know you're not that infant," Hibari stated outright. "I'll bite you to death on the grounds of meaningless impersonation." He ran towards Reborn while he reached for his Vongola box.

Gokudera saw that he wasn't needed and headed straight for Tsuna. He helped his boss up as he observed the ensuing fight. Tsuna, still dizzy from Reborn's attack, clutched his head to try and stop the island from spinning. "G-Gokudera, am I late for school again?"

Gokudera shook his head. "Don't worry, Juudaime! You're going to be just fine." The storm guardian looked at Hibari, who was actually keeping up with Reborn pretty well. "I think Hibari's got this battle all wrapped up."

Hibari pressed his ring into his Vongola box and held it out to the sky. The hedgehog was shot out high above the combatants with Reborn paying no mind; instead, he fired a Chaos Shot into the air to stop the hedgehog from expanding any further. Hibari started springing towards Reborn and evaded the regular bullets that Reborn was shooting left and right. Finally, Reborn put away his pistol and changed Leon into his mallet form once again and covered in with sun flames. Then Reborn slammed the mallet into the ground, causing a tremor that could be felt even from the mainland.

"I-I didn't know Reborn could do something like that!" Tsuna stuttered as he fell over into the sand.

Hibari temporarily lost his balance and stumbled over a few feet away from the Arcobaleno. He scowled as he realized that Reborn was now pointing his pistol at his forehead. "It's the end, Hibari."

"I'll say it is!"

Reborn looked around, only to be slashed from behind by someone's keyblade. As the Arcobaleno fell forward, his form slowly faded and was replaced by someone in a black cloak. Riku stepped back in shock as he withdrew his keyblade. "No frickin' way!"

"Riku! What the hell is it!" Sora shouted as he ran up from behind. However, Sora saw their enemy and his jaw slacked as well. "Organization XIII!"

Hibari slowly got up, but instead of just walking away once more, he brandished his tonfa at the enemy. "Damn mist user…" he growled. "They're always an irritation to me…"

"Hey! Don't do anything stupid!" Riku shouted. "If he's still alive, we can get him to explain why he attacked us." Under his breath, Riku muttered, "And we might be able to know how they've come back…" Hibari lowered his weapon, and eventually put it back in its box.

When Hibari's tonfas disappeared inside the box, a bright light was shining from the slot where a ring would be placed. The same light shone from Gokudera's and Tsuna's boxes as well. The three all held out their boxes and the lights all formed a rectangle, which resembled a screen. Riku and Sora, although still troubled by the reappearance of their enemies, were utterly confused by the light show. The shining rectangle then showed a dark silhouette that was gradually getting clearer.

"Good afternoon, Vongola Famiglia!"

"V-Verde!" Gokudera and Tsuna called out as they recognized the figure on screen. His messy and bushy green hair matched his green eyes that were partially obscured by the glare of the glasses he was wearing. Something that was also noticeable was that he was not in his Arcobaleno form, just like Skull. Tsuna went on to ask the scientist, "How are you able to do this?"

"It's actually quite simple, Tenth Vongola," Verde replied. "You simply ¢£¤¥€§©¬ and then you ±µΔΠ€£δζΦΣ§, and if you need to take precautions, ψ↵≅⊃∀ς and then ξ&λη properly. That's all you have to do."

Everyone simply stood there, speechless at Verde's explanation. Even Hibari, who would normally wouldn't bother to listen to such a drawn out topic, was rendered silent. The awkward silence carried on for about a few moments before Sora finally cleared his throat and stated honestly, "I…could not understand a single word of that."

"You're all so simple-minded," Verde rebuffed. He browsed their priceless faces before adding, "Did I render you all brain-dead?"

"I feel so…imbecilic…" Gokudera stated as he collapsed on the sand in a muttering heap. Spouting things like, "How can I support Juudaime like this," or "I'll never be able to be a good right-hand man this way…"

Tsuna could only stare at Gokudera, dumbstruck that he went down so easily. "P-Please explain in simpler terms."

"Alright," Verde complied as he pushed up his glasses. "I was simply able to launch communication link with your Vongola boxes using a rather unique computer that I found in this new 'world' that I landed on." Verde then sighed in contentment, "Oh the volumes upon of priceless information that I could read up on here…"

"Get to the point already," Hibari said impatiently.

"Oh, right…" Verde replied. "Using the exact same method I'm using to talk to you right now, I may be able to create a portal that can connect the 'worlds' involved." Verde looked at something offscreen, which made him shrug. "I'm going to send someone over there just to test it." Verde once again looked to that mystery person offscreen and said, "Are you ready?" Once Verde had received an agreement, the scientist typed away at an unseen keyboard and a loud whirring sound was heard in the background. "Okay, he should be arriving in a few seconds…"

All of the fighters looked around to see where the visitor would be landing, but Hibari simply crossed his arms and waited for him to show up. However, a bright light appeared right above Hibari's head, unbeknownst to the Cloud Guardian. Everyone else noticed right away, but they all didn't want to tell him either because he'd bite them to death or they just wanted to see what would happen.

Then the visitor landed on top of Hibari as a small cloud of sand surrounded them.

"That hurt!" a familiar voice shouted at the top of his lungs. "…TO THE EXTREME!"

"Ryohei-nii!" Tsuna called out as he recognized his friend. Then he realized that he was still sitting on top of Hibari. "Y-You better slowly back off from where you landed."

Ryohei held a perplexed face, but then he stared at the person that he accidentally landed on. Hibari was face-first in the sand and was looking like roadkill at that point. However, he was still conscious, as the Vongola ring on his finger was starting to burn rather brightly. Tsuna covered his eyes with fear as he added, "I'm pretty sure those flames get bigger when you're pissed off…"

When Ryohei finally got up and backed two steps away, Hibari glared at him menacingly and growled, "I'll bite you to death."

"Running away from Hibari! TO THE EXTREME!"

Hibari all but sprinted after Ryohei as the boxer started running for dear life. Then Sora asked Tsuna and Gokudera, "Does that guy always say that?" Tsuna and Gokudera looked at each other and nodded, despite the fact that they didn't know which person that Sora was referring to.

Hibari suddenly stopped running and simply took a deep breath. Then he glared at Ryohei once more and stated, "I'll bite you to death…later."

Tsuna and Gokudera's jaws dropped at what they had just heard. Tsuna stated, "Hibari-kun's never said 'later' before!"

"Hello~!"

Everyone turned to look at Verde, who was still there, but now visibly irritated that he was being ignored. "Now we all know that the portal works, right?" Everyone except Ryohei nodded. Ryohei pumped a fist in the air and shouted, "It works! TO THE EXTREME!" Verde stared at his test subject, but then shrugged off the very vocal verbal tic. "There's a strong chance that it will work both ways. However, the chances of it being successful vary on the number of boxes that are in the area."

"So, because we had three, it worked?" Gokudera asked.

Verde nodded. "I could've done it with the three remaining guardians, but I doubt that they would've safely made the trip. If the portal undergoes a 'malfunction' of sorts, then those inside the portal will be lost in either an entirely different world or…what these people would call the 'darkness'." Sora and Riku noticeably tensed up at the mention of the realm, and Verde proceeded to call them out on it. "You two…know about this don't you?" Sora and Riku were silent about it, but Verde paid it no mind. "Okay, time to fire up the portal again!"

"Wai—what!" Sora shouted, taken out of his silent stupor.

"Don't worry, I haven't messed up." Verde assured them. '_At least…not yet, anyway.' _The screen of light that came from the boxes ceased functioning. Afterwards, the four Vongola boxes simultaneously shot out a beam of light that formed a portal that proceeded to drag everyone into it.

"If anything goes wrong, I'm going to bite him to death." Hibari stood, unflinching as more and more gritty sand was sucked into the portal. Then, he ran towards the portal, picked up his Vongola box and jumped in, much to everyone's surprise.

"Heh. I thought he didn't seem like the 'leap before you look' type…" Sora followed the Cloud Guardian's example and ran into the portal.

The three remaining guardians looked at the portal in hesitation. "Juudaime, I'll follow you, no matter what decision you make." Gokudera picked up his Vongola box and stared at his boss intently. Tsuna felt rather mortified that he was looked upon so attentively. However, he swallowed his doubt and faced the portal. "There's no way to avoid this. Let's go." And so, the three Vongola stepped through the portal. With the obvious exception of Ryohei who shouted "Going through the portal! TO THE EXTREME!"

Riku was the only one left, and it seemed that the portal wouldn't budge until he was through as well. But the white-haired keyblade master looked back at the cloaked figure that was still unconscious upon the sand. "If you're still here by the time we get back, there's going to be hell to pay." Riku ran through the portal without another word, and it was consequently sealed.

* * *

"What's wrong with your swordplay? I thought you were going all-out on me!" The gunner shouted in disappointment. Due to the cloud-flame property of propagation, he was never running out of bullets, and as such, didn't spend time reloading. All he had to worry about was to keep himself trigger-happy. "This fight isn't going to go anywhere if you keep dodging like that!"

"What do you expect me to do?" Yamamoto asked. "It's not as if I should let myself get shot." Yamamoto scowled as he inwardly admitted that the gunner was right. Right now, all he could do was dodge the oncoming bullets. At the start of the fight, waiting for the gunner to reload seemed like the perfect opening, but now that was out of the question. "Jirou!" He called out.

Jirou threw one of the three katanas at his master, and Yamamoto reached out for it. Suddenly, the sword was deflected by a new stream of bullets and was sent towards the ground. Yamamoto saw his chance and flew straight towards the gunner now that he was no longer the mark. In addition, he proceeded to bring out his swallow, Kojirou. "Scontro di Rondine!"

A tidal wave made purely out of rain flames sprung forth from the blue flames produced by Kojirou as it led the attack towards the gunner and Yamamoto held his blade at the ready while he followed his box animal. "Take this!"

The gunner swiftly redirected his attention at Yamamoto, but then the swordsman knocked his unique guns out of his hands, which then fell towards the brick pavement below them. Yamamoto held his katana at the gunner's neck, and glared with caution. "Hands up!"

The gunner held his hands up in the air, but grinned despite the fact that he was soundly beaten. "Looks like I lost this one," he admitted. "That display was pretty impressive. Mind telling me your name so we can have a rematch later?"

Yamamoto clenched his katana within his hand ever so tightly. "I'm Takeshi Yamamoto. I'm a baseball extraordinaire with expertise in swordsmanship. Mind telling me why you attacked me for no reason?"

"Now that would be an oxymoron," the gunner stated. "My name is Xigbar. I'm number II in Organization XIII, and I attacked you with the intent of…" the gunner paused mid-sentence and snapped his fingers, causing two small dark portals appearing above his head. He swiftly dodged a strike from Yamamoto while pulling his guns out of the portals and smirked. "I came here with the intent of kidnapping you."

Xigbar barraged Yamamoto with bullets of pure cloud flames just to make sure that he wouldn't kill him. Yamamoto couldn't even scream because of the pain tearing at his muscles and the blood that he was losing. How could he lose again? He spent all that time training, but now it all let him down again. Such despairing thoughts ran through his head as he closed his eyes and fell unconscious.

Xigbar caught Yamamoto's body before it reached the ground. With a depressed sigh, he conjured an obsidian portal. "You're an interesting guy aren't you? Hopefully the guys in the castle won't kill you. I still want that rematch." Xigbar was about to drag Yamamoto through the portal, but then he felt a few pebbles hit his back. He turned around and saw Hayner, Pence, and Olette with more pebbles gathered in their arms and about to throw them.

"Give us back our friend!" Pence shouted as he chucked another rock, but missed.

"I don't have time to play with you. Maybe when I have it, I can come back and fill you all with holes. How does that sound?" Xigbar smirked menacingly at them.

"Now, that isn't very nice," a voice familiar to Xigbar called out.

The gunner was forced to close the portal and readied his gun with his free hand that wasn't holding on to Yamamoto. Hayner, Pence, and Olette were still wary of Xigbar but were curious as to who the owner of the voice was. Then Xigbar shot a bullet in the air in a seemingly random direction, but then the remains of a small yellow knife landed on the ground not too far from him.

"Come on out, Larxene," Xigbar called out in a singsong voice. "You know the rest of the Organization's looking for you. But then again, they're also looking for a few others…"

"As if!" Larxene shouted back, mocking the gunner's signature phrase. It was something that she knew Xigbar wouldn't take lightly. She jumped from the top of the clock tower, and hovered in front of her opponent. "Is it okay if I take the kid for a second?"

"Wow…" Xigbar chuckled. "I thought you were more decent than that!"

"Cut the crap already!" Larxene responded with throwing a fistful of knives at Xigbar.

Xigbar let Yamamoto lie on the ground as he took up his other gun and started firing away at Larxene. He deflected all the knives that she threw at him and then started to aim directly for the girl. But something was strange about the way was moving. Her high heels were covered with some sort of green light that kept darting out in random directions. Upon closer inspection, her knives were also coated in the same energy. Xigbar took time to try and analyze her fighting style, but he took short pauses between firing—something that Larxene was able to pick up quickly.

"You're open!" Larxene shouted with confidence as she threw more knives at him. She was pissed because she wanted to avoid hitting the young swordsman that was unconscious, which was hard to do because of her habit of fighting recklessly. All she had to do was to snatch the kid and make a speedy getaway. She frowned when she realized why she was doing this in the first place.

Xigbar continued to shoot and deflect the bullets, with his only iota of knowledge about his callous opponent being that she was just a 'bitch that threw knives around.' "How come all my fights become really stale really fast?"

"Cause in all honesty, you're just any other 'stale' old dude!" Larxene mocked him as stopped throwing knives and floated in the air with her hands behind her head in a laidback manner. "You really can't pick up on how these 'flames' work, do you?"

"I'm pretty sure Vexen's on it," Xigbar replied cautiously as he stopped firing. As much as was all for filling her up with holes, he had to know her reason for attacking him. "But in the meantime, I'm having too much fun firing away. Reloading's not a free action for me, you know?" Xigbar tapped his gun against his shoulder, but then he noticed that Larxene was simply playing with the green flames coating her knives. "Are you even listening to me anymore?"

"No. And now I don't have to," Larxene boasted as she snapped her fingers.

All the knives on the ground simultaneously lit up with the green flames and even cackled with electricity. Larxene grinned with malice as she floated back to the top of the clock tower, high above the fray. Xigbar tried shooting at the knives, but the green flames shot out and destroyed the bullets. An expression that could only be described as a mixture of shock and terror appeared on his face as he tried to make sense of what was going on.

"Sorry, I don't think I perfected it!" Larxene shouted from high up above. "I'd say you might not feel anything for the next week or so. Oh! You're such a good boy…" She diverted her attention away from Xigbar and onto Jirou, who was glad that he had company now. "Buh bye!"

The knives all connected to each other with green flames and created an explosion that could be heard for miles. The smoke obscured the entire square, leaving nothing uncovered. Larxene's malicious smile disappeared as she saw the smoke slowly rise up and cover the sunset (or the sunrise). She scratched Jirou behind the ears tentatively before picking him up and descending to the ground.

Larxene, noticing the silence, sighed. "I guess I killed him. Oh well, he was going to kick the bucket anyway."

"This…is not…funny."

Larxene suddenly dropped Jirou as she looked in the direction of the voice. The smoke was still there, but she could see a dark silhouette on the ground. She walked closer to it, and found Xigbar on the ground, struggling to look up at her. Just like Larxene had said, he could barely move.

"I'm…going to get you for this," Xigbar threatened, albeit with a smile still on his face. "Though, you're going to have to tell me. Why aren't you with the Organization anymore?"

"Why the hell _should_ I tell you?" Larxene asked back as she walked over to Yamamoto and slung his arm over her shoulder. "Right now, I'm just opposed to whatever you and the Organization are planning. This kid…" She looked back at Yamamoto, who held an anguished face despite the bliss of sleep. "Well, any enemy of you is a friend of mine."

Xigbar smirked. "Sounds simple enough."

Larxene rolled her eyes at the man's lack of reaction, but then something caught her eye. "What the…?" Something was flashing in Yamamoto's jacket, to which Jirou started barking. She took out the source of the light, which was a small blue box. "Something tells me this won't be pretty."

"Since when have you ever been pretty?" Xigbar chuckled. Larxene threw a knife near his neck in response.

The box shot out a beam of light that changed into a portal nearby. The portal suddenly drew Larxene, Yamamoto, and Jirou towards itself. Larxene tried digging her heels into the grooves of the bricks beneath them, but then she tripped and they all disappeared into the portal and out of sight. Xigbar, however, was left behind.

"Well…" Xigbar said to himself as he laid on the ground. "Sucks to be me right now."

* * *

"Oh good! You're finally awake!" Yuffie exclaimed at the stranger.

Chrome's eyes suddenly bolted open by the sudden greeting and tried to inch away from the other girl. She looked around tentatively and realized that she was in a completely alien environment. Books were cluttered everywhere, and she was on one of the only pieces of furniture in the house. How did she end up here?

"My name's Yuffie! What's yours?"

Chrome looked back at the stranger in front of her. Was she a resident of this odd place? Chrome looked down and said, barely louder than a whisper, "My name is Chrome Dokuro."

"That's…" Yuffie looked at a corner of the room thoughtfully. "That's a pretty cool name! Your parents must be pretty cool too if they gave you a name like that!"

"My parents…" Chrome repeated in sadness. She remembered them perfectly. They pretended that she didn't exist until the accident, and then they left her for dead after that. Just thinking about it all was enough to cause her to curl up and hug her knees protectively.

"Oh…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up something so touchy. Oh!" Yuffie clapped her hands together as she realized something. "Since you're up, you might as well get dressed! Your clothes are on that stack of books behind you. And I'm going to tell Aerith that you finally got up too!"

As Yuffie sped out of the door, Chrome realized that she was in her undergarments. She blushed at the thought that she was half-naked, but she got over it…with difficulty. She looked back and found her clothes, recently cleaned and on top of the stack of books just behind the headboard. She put on her clothes and noticed that Mukuro's trident wasn't anywhere to be seen. She started panicking, but then heard his voice, clear in her head.

'_Don't worry…dear, Chrome._'

"Mukuro-sama!" Chrome cried out as she tried looking around for the source of his voice. Then she looked down to the floor, saying, "It's no use. He isn't here." However, she closed her eyes and tried to dwell on it. Where else could he be?

"Who isn't here?"

Chrome turned around and saw a woman with a white and pink frilly dress with chestnut hair fashioned in the way a princess would have it. Her green eyes held nothing but sincerity and kindness, something that surprised Chrome greatly. "I'm glad to see that you're up," she said with a smile.

"…"

"I guess I would be shy too," Aerith admitted. She walked over to Chrome and placed her hand gently on the girl's cheek. "There's nothing to be scared of here. So long as my friends and I are here, you can loosen up, okay?"

Chrome timidly nodded, but then backed away.

Aerith continued to smile warmly. "From what Yuffie has told me, your name is Chrome, right?" As soon as she received a nod, Aerith continued. "I'm Aerith from the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee. If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask."

"…Okay," Chrome replied.

"That piece of shit!" A gruff voice shouted from outside. Aerith and Chrome both looked to the door, and a man who was in his late forties kicked it open. He mumbled something that the girls couldn't hear, but ended it with an audible "…and he calls himself a scientist!"

"What's wrong, Cid?" Aerith asked the man. "Who are you talking about?"

"I was just tinkerin' with the computer by the labs when some punk with green hair and a labcoat yanked me away and started messin' with the thing!" Cid shouted, not at all pleased about describing the event. "And when I tried to stop him, he got out this crocodile and it chased me out!"

"I've never heard of someone like that before," Aerith stated.

Chrome, a little uninterested in what they were talking about, proceeded to walk past them as they were talking and opened the door. She took a deep sigh out of discomfort of the whole situation. These people all seemed nice, but what happened to Mukuro? And then there was that time when she had seen Hibari in the illusionary realm. She was knocked out of her contemplating as she saw a white light flash in front of her. She was curious as to what it was.

"Isn't it pretty cool?" Yuffie's voice called out from above. Chrome looked behind her and found Yuffie on the roof. How did she get up there? "That's called Claymore. It's the town's defense system against 'harmful elements that would breach its borders' or something like that." Yuffie jumped down and walked up to Chrome. "But for it to start functioning just when you step—look out!"

Yuffie pulled out a massive shuriken from out of nowhere and tossed it at an incoming projectile. When the shuriken returned to her, she held a defensive stance against the attacker, which slowly floated into view. It was a small creature that wielded a large book.

"See that? That's called a 'Heartless'!" Yuffie pointed out. "This one isn't too powerful, but it can still be dangerous to people who can't fight." Yuffie looked at Chrome, who backed away. "You should get inside. You might get hurt out here."

Chrome, however, stood her ground after hearing the offhand comment. How could she run away now? She had to stay and fight _some_ time. She had to get stronger, for Mukuro's sake. She couldn't always rely on him to bail her out in tough situations. Yuffie grinned as she saw Chrome take out a weapon and then focused her attention on the Heartless in front of her. Now that Heartless was calling for a few minor reinforcements.

"Okay, so it looks like you can fight," Yuffie said happily. "Can you handle these?"

"I…I'll try." Chrome said with a little bit of confidence. "I can do this."

* * *

((I think I update once a month. But that will soon change once I get through with zeh dreaded EIGHTH GRADE FINALS! So yeah, expect more updates after graduation. My seven thoughts on this chapter:

**1**-I don't think I should have started with six pages of Reborn VS everyone else. KH fans are probably scratching their heads about this. If you're pissed about me not including KH characters, I'm getting there. FORGIVE ME, READERS!

**2**-I have a feeling this chapter wasn't even half of what it could have been.

**3**-Chrome should get more action parts! I felt kind of pissed when I wasn't able to see Chrome fight in the future arc! Sure, there was that one perverted guy who got what was coming to him, but that was pretty much it! I shall include Muku-Owl next chapter!

**4**-I got the "Running away from Hibari! TO THE EXTREME!" part from Ending 15 of the anime. It just had to be in here.

**5**-I think Larxene has a soft spot somewhere. If you look at her death scene in the Re:Chain, she seems a little sympathetic. Plus she fights in high heels! How awesome is THAT!

**6**-For some reason, I think Verde's my favorite Arcobaleno. FORGIVE ME, REBORN AND COLONELLO!

**7**-I like describing the dying will flames for some reason.

The beautiful thing about fanfiction is that you barely need to describe anything about the characters you use. However, I use the Reborn wiki for the tidbits of stuff that's in anime fillers. If I get anything wrong concerning Arcobaleno or "Inheritance", please let me know! Anyway, please review, for reviews make me a happy girl. I'M GOING TO UPGRADE SOONER! TO THE EXTREME!))


	4. Dive to World

Thank you all who added this story to their favorites and alerts! Special thanks goes to _animaniac-aizel012, tsukianime, Espadakatsukreuz XIII, Tan-Tan Tanuki, Hakumei-chan, XTAIGAX,_ and _archsage328 _for bothering to review! I love you guys!

* * *

**Chapter 4: Dive to World**

_Let's talk about the important dream and embrace your trembling heart. __Let's look for that elusive moment you've been longing for!_

* * *

Chrome pressed her Vongola ring to her Vongola box and released the mist owl held inside. Chrome held out her arm, and the owl landed gently on her arm. She stroked its feathers before letting it fly towards the Heartless. Meanwhile, Chrome used her mist flames to conjure a trident for herself as she ran alongside Yuffie.

"Now we're talking!" Yuffie shouted energetically. Yuffie threw several small shuriken at two Soldier heartless while she jumped up and kicked the Bookmaster back as it tried to guard with its large book. She dodged an attack by the same two Soldier heartless that she previously three shuriken at.

"Hey, Chrome! That Bookmaster conjures barriers for the weaker ones, so we have to destroy that one first!" Yuffie explained.

Chrome nodded. Her owl was dodging attacks and distracting the Bookmaster and then it started to glow with the indigo mist flame. Chrome focused her thoughts on the mist flame and created a makeshift illusion for the heartless. However, the heartless wasn't even bothered and headed straight for Chrome. Chrome quickly conjured a trident made completely out of mist flames and dodged the attack by quickly sidestepping. Then she stabbed the Bookmaster as it stumbled over and flung it towards Yuffie.

"Alright!" Yuffie readied her large shuriken and slashed through the Bookmaster, dissolving the barriers around the weaker heartless. "Let's go, Chrome!"

Chrome and Yuffie dashed forward slashed through the heartless, one by one. As Chrome jumped and struck a Surveillance Robot, another one tried to ready a Sparkle Ray at her, but Yuffie caught it and fired the same ray at all the other heartless, defeating all of them for the time being.

"Oh YEAH! That was frickin' awesome!" Yuffie shot a fist in the air and then grinned at Chrome. "You and your owl were pretty awesome too!"

"I guess…" Chrome said shyly. She looked up, held her hand out and the owl landed on it. She then put it back inside its box. As she did so, the trident formed out of mist flames disappeared. "What are heartless, exactly?"

Yuffie was surprised by her suddenly asking a question, but she shrugged. "The Heartless are actually beings made from people's hearts despite the title, which I find ironic. They are mindless creatures that prey on the darkness within other people's hearts. That's basically Heartless in a nutshell."

Chrome realized that it was because they are mindless that her illusions couldn't work on one. She became a little saddened by the fact that her powers can barely do anything in this world. At least her trident could still work. Suddenly, the ground shook violently as a bright light was emitted not too far from where they were. Then, the tremor stopped as quickly as it started.

"What the hell was that?" Yuffie asked.

Chrome couldn't answer, but then she heard someone shouting from inside Merlin's house. They both ran inside and found several more people than when they first left not too long ago.

"Boss!" Chrome shouted as she ran towards Tsuna, who was on the floor and clutching his face in pain since he landed on the floor with his it. "Are you alright?"

"That hurts!" Tsuna replied with surprising coherency considering his mouth was covered by his hands as was rolling all over the floor. "Why couldn't we just walk through!"

"Hell if I know!" Sora shouted as rubbed his backside. "Oh! Hey, Yuffie!" He waved cheerfully at the ninja.

"Hi, Sora!" Yuffie greeted in return. However, she didn't know the rest of the people that had landed in Merlin's house. She held a confused face as she tried to piece together who they were.

"Don't worry, these guys are fiends!" Sora stated conveniently.

Sora introduced each of them one by one. Tsuna simply scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed look on his face, Ryohei shouted, "EXTREME!", as he was introduced, and Hibari simply leaned against the wall with his arms crossed without saying anything. Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid also finally got to meet Riku, whom Sora has looked for and has apparently found.

"So where's Kairi?" Aerith asked.

Sora paused for a while before jumping up and saying, "Holy crap! I forgot about her!"

"Very smooth," Riku replied sarcastically. Riku noticed that Gokudera had gone missing, but decided to tell everyone when there was a chance to. He couldn't be that hard to find, even if it was in a large world like Radiant Garden. The silverette noticed that they weren't in the same room as Verde, but saw the computer that Cid was in charge of. '_It must've interfered with the process,_' he mentally noted.

The next hour or so was spent explaining why they were there, an action that Hibari and Sora somewhat loathed at this point. Most of the explaining was done by the latter, which came as no surprise to everyone. Riku and Hibari said nothing during the explanation due to disinterest. Chrome kept looking worried and a little frantic over Tsuna's condition and whenever she heard that Tsuna was in danger. Ryohei grinned when his name was called. It was a generally boring half-hour.

"But what was it that led you here, exactly?" Aerith asked the Vongola family currently assembled. "Was it just coincidence?"

"I doubt it," Tsuna replied. "Most of the events up until now were overseen by a mysterious person that opposes the existence of the Vongola family. We know that Byakuran can synchronize with himself in different timelines, but we don't know if he has another incarnation in this universe or something."

"So, there's a bad guy out there who may or may not be targeting you right now. Looks like it sucks to be you right now," Yuffie stated oh-so-optimistically.

"Instead of looking at who is the cause of it. Let's look at what is the cause of it," Aerith supposed. "You said that Dying Will Flames are powered by resolve, right?"

"Well, either resolve or getting pissed off," Tsuna added as his darted towards Hibari. However, he looked away to avoid both eye contact and aggravating the Cloud Guardian.

"So, you're saying that a person on this side had the greatest resolve, and that brought the Vongola here?" Riku suggested, finally getting into the conversation. Riku immediately looked to the oblivious Sora, who was conversing with Yuffie on something off-topic. He smiled inwardly as he realized that the former was just a walking mass of resolve.

"Let's look for Verde. He may be able to figure something out," Riku said as he headed for the door.

"Find the scientist! TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei shouted as he beat Gokudera to the door and ran out.

"Well, good luck. Damn crocodile's gonna chew you up an' spit you out like Leon's cooking," Cid replied as he went back to his computer.

"He'll listen to us," Tsuna answered. "I hope…"

Without warning, a light started to emanate from a nearby book, which was placed on a podium rather than stacked up like the other countless tomes carelessly placed around the house. The light grew brighter and brighter until it culminated into a stunning flash that lighted the entire house. When the light subsided, a surprised Gokudera and a whining Lambo were left behind.

"Lambo wants a lollipop!"

"G-Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna exclaimed, trying his best to ignore Lambo. "Where were you?"

"Th-that's a long story Juudaime…" the Storm Guardian replied as he scratched the back of his head.

* * *

Jirou followed Larxene as she begrudgingly dragged an unconscious Yamamoto past the abandoned buildings and stores. Then she sighed as she realized how she had managed to get caught up in a load of bull. "Tch. Since when did I become a complete bonehead?" She asked herself, and then looked towards the swordsman. "I don't even know your name, and I went up against Xigbar to save you. There's got to be something wrong with me." Jirou yipped, as if trying to say that she was okay as she was.

Larxene sighed again and decided to take a break by stopping in an alley and leaning Yamamoto against a wall. She stretched her arms out a little before turning around and looking back at her companion. Although she was able to slow the bleeding by healing him with sun flames, there was still blood leaking out from his wounds. Larxene sighed once more before taking out a knife and cutting off one of her sleeves. She then tore the sleeve into small strips before tying them around the source of the bleeding. Jirou simply sat down patiently, and watched the process.

"Nnn…"

Larxene heard the grunt and stopped for a second to see if he would wake up. Instead, Yamamoto didn't stir. Now he simply remained idle against the brick wall. Jirou, seeing an opportunity to wake his master, forcefully butted his head against Yamamoto's chest and caused the swordsman's head to be slammed against the wall. Immediately, Yamamoto's hands flew to his head to try and rub the newly formed wound. Jirou barked and wagged his tail happily.

"Finally. At least now it won't seem like I'm talking to myself."

Yamamoto weakly looked up at Larxene and widened his eyes. "Who are you?"

Larxene shrugged at his rather impolite first sentence. "I'm the girl that just saved your sorry ass. You're lucky I didn't choose to leave you behind when I had the chance."

Yamamoto smiled at her. "Well, if you saved me, then I guess you're a good guy!" As he finished with the sentence, he scratched Jirou behind the ears and then put him back in his Vongola box. Then he tried to stand up, but then stumbled forward and was caught by Larxene.

"Hey! Watch it!" Larxene pushed him back against the wall before looking at the Vongola box. "That thing," she started. "What the hell is it? You can store animals and weapons in that thing, and on top of it all, it opens up portals."

Yamamoto scratched his head in confusion. "I don't know how my box opened up a portal, but I guess it came in handy, considering how it got us away from Xigbar." Yamamoto looked thoughtfully at the starry sky. "He said he was from Organization XIII. Nee-chan, do you know who they are?"

Larxene, brushing off the title, conjured a knife in her hand. "Organization XII…" she repeated. "It's tough to explain. However, I'm telling you now that I used to be a member." She chuckled as Yamamoto practically jumped at the statement. "My name is Larxene. I used to be Number XII. So, do you still think that I'm a good guy?"

Yamamoto still smiled. "Well, yeah. You saved my life without any plausible reason. I think that's a good enough reason to trust you without any doubt."

Larxene stared at her knife. She thought about all the possible ways that this "trust" would stab them in the back. However, she dismissed both the thought and the knife as she placed her hands on her hips. "You would hold me to that?"

"Of course," Yamamoto replied. "Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Takeshi Yamamoto, the Vongola Rain Guardian and future professional baseball player! I may have lost that battle with Xigbar, but I'm telling you, I'm good at swordplay too."

Larxene paused before reluctantly holding out her hand. "I guess you'll do well as an ally." And with that, she helped Yamamoto up.

"Well, what have we here?" a figure said from on top of a nearby rooftop.

Yamamoto was about to ready his weapon, but Larxene slapped his hand and leaned a fist on her hip. "Marluxia, get down from there. You will never be badass in any way!"

Yamamoto was taken aback by the appearance of another supposed comrade. As this person landed ever so gracefully in front of them, there were petals swirling around in the air. The individual also had bright pink hair, and made Yamamoto question whether or not it was a woman or a man.

"I guess my appearance stunned him," Marluxia stated.

"No it didn't," Larxene rebuked. She turned to face Yamamoto. "This is a guy. His name's Marluxia, the former Number XI in the Organization."

Yamamoto, ever so accepting, grinned as he said, "Well, nice to meet you."

"This kid'll be joining us," Larxene said to Marluxia. "Hope you don't mind, but I think he can hold his own in a fight."

Marluxia gave a rather casual smile. "Just make sure that he doesn't drag us down. I don't want to die again due to some hindrance."

Yamamoto, for once, stopped smiling, "Y-You mean…"

Larxene shrugged as he looked at the swordsman, "Well, if I was talking to two walking corpses, I guess I'd be a little shocked too."

* * *

Gokudera landed rather unceremoniously on the grass with his red Vongola box following soon after. He spent no time in trying to recover from his landing and instead looked around frantically for Tsuna. "Juudaime!" He called out. Finding out where he was now was only second to finding out where the boss was. "Juudaime!" He called out once more.

Gokudera pounded a fist into the grass in frustration. '_Where is he? In order to be a good right hand man, I have to protect him! I can't protect him if I don't know where the hell he is!_' He stood up, recovered his Vongola box from the ground and scanned the area. He was surrounded by large stretches of grass with several trees dotting the landscape. The serene appearance of the environment was untouched by anything manmade. Anyone would've been captivated by a sight, but Gokudera only thought of trying to find Tsuna. He was about to take a step outwards, to start his long trek, when he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"LAMBO ISN'T HAVING FUN!"

"It's the stupid cow!" Gokudera shouted back at no one. "Maybe he knows where Juudaime is!" He stopped to think for a second, and then landed a pained hand on his forehead. "Of course he wouldn't know! But I still have to try!"

Gokudera went for the small forest in the distance and followed the makeshift past of soil into the trees. He was following the exasperated voice of Lambo, but was surprised to hear other voices as well. If they were enemies, then he would blow them to hell. If they were benevolent…who knows? When Gokudera finally reached a small clearing, he could only apply his hand to his forehead once more, in lack of comprehension of what was going on.

"Try again," a rather calm and mellow voice stated. "You see, it requires a small amount of luck. And luck, as Owl says, does not take sides."

"Pooh-sticks isn't fun!" Lambo cried out. "I hate Pooh-sticks!"

Gokudera sighed and tried to piece together what he saw without immediately concluding that he had gone insane. Lambo was whining about throwing sticks into the water, a stuffed yellow bear was giving him advice about it, and when Lambo tried to throw grenades from his afro, they exploded into bluebirds and confetti.

Gokudera could only weakly say, "What's going on?"

"Why, they're playing pooh-sticks! That's what Tiggers do best!" a somewhat raspy and almost warm voice exclaimed. "T-I-double-guh-err! That's how you spell Tigger!" the tiger introduced himself.

Gokudera reached for some dynamite, but then he was knocked over and sent rolling by some unknown object. When Gokudera finally settled on the ground, he saw a stuffed tiger sitting on top of him—something that Gokudera didn't like. Tigger proceeded to press his nose to Gokudera's.

"Well, I don't think I've ever seen one of yous befores!" Tigger stated energetically. "What with your kooky hair and all! Of course, I'll give you some pointers 'cause I'm one of the most handsomest Tiggers around!"

Gokudera stared angrily at Tigger, but received no reaction from the latter. After a few moments of silence, he finally asked, "Will you please get off of me?" Gokudera got up after seeing Tigger bounce off of his chest and proceeded to brush the dust and soil off of his pants. "What are you anyway?"

"Ohh~ I thought you'd never ask!" Tigger raised his hands up, as if preparing to dance. Then he grabbed both of Gokudera's hands and started to twirl the both of them around like in a rather sloppy waltz. The storm guardian could barely understand the lyrics to the song he was hearing. Something about their tops being made out of rubber and their bottoms made out of strings. "Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN! The wonderful thing about Tiggers is that I'm the only one!"

"Lambo hates that song!"

"Daww…" Tigger let go of Gokudera and hung his head low in a depressing manner. "All I wanted was to make some friends…"

"Stupid cow!" Gokudera threw a stick of dynamite at Lambo, yet it just turned into confetti and smoke the minute it made contact with the cow. "It's the darn inventor Giannini again isn't it!" The storm guardian paused for a second to wonder about how he couldn't say 'damn'. What was with this world?

"Lambo wants to play something fun!" Lambo kept stomping his feet on the bridge they were on and tried to search his afro for another grenade or his ten-year bazooka. "Lambo needs his tail back!"

"Tail?" Gokudera asked in response. He looked at Lambo's backside, and sure enough, his tail was missing.

"Oh, bother," the stuffed bear said. Gokudera completely forgot about him. It seems a piece of confetti got on his nose. The bear tried to lift his stiff arms to rub it off, but when that didn't work, he tried to blow it off. Whenever he did, it was almost as if he said "pooh."

Gokudera shrugged, walked over to the small stuffed bear and rubbed it off for him. The bear smiled at him and offered a hand in gratitude. "Thank you…someone I don't know. My name is Pooh. Might I ask what your name might be?"

"My name is Gokudera," Gokudera answered. He was about to ask what he and Tigger was, when the tiger jumped onto his back and toppled him over.

"Hey, let me have one of fancy sticks!" Tigger demanded. "Oh! On secondary thoughts, you throw 'em and I'll catch 'em with one of my super high bounces!"

Gokudera, already annoyed with the situation as it is, threw three sticks of dynamite into the air and grabbed Lambo while no one was looking. He was about to make a run for it, until Pooh tugged on his shirt. "I think I might know the solution to our problem," Pooh stated happily.

"O-Okay," Gokudera agreed as he followed Pooh. All the while, he was thinking, '_I should have exorcised this thing when I had the chance!_', while at the same time, kept ignoring Lambo's complaints and whining.

Pooh led them to the top of a hill with a large tree sitting atop it. A lone swing hung from one of the thicker branches, providing a place to sit and take in the beautiful view of the horizon covered by nearly endless trees. Lambo wriggled out of Gokudera's grip and sat on the swing. "Lambo wants to swing really high!"

"Get off of there, you stupid cow!" Gokudera shouted at him. However, instead of trying to shake him off, he proceeded to take the ropes of the swing and back up. All the while, Lambo kept shouting about how high he wanted to go. "Alright. HOW'S THIS!"

Gokudera threw the swing so hard that it nearly tore the branch right off of the tree. The Storm Guardian's grin changed from one of wickedness to one of uncertainty as the cow left the swing seat. "S-Stupid cow!" The Storm Guardian shouted as he ran towards where he thought the landing spot would be.

"Oh bother," Pooh sighed.

Tigger saw Lambo fly past him mid-jump and proceeded to try and catch him. "I got him! I got him!" Tigger shouted as he caught Lambo. However, they both ended up landing in a thicket of trees.

Gokudera, as worried as he would ever be for Lambo, searched behind a few trees and bushes before finally finding them. They were both sitting atop a pile of broken branches, dizzy, but otherwise perfectly fine. Tigger was laughing while Lambo was still crying and searching his afro fro something to injure him with.

"How do you like them jumps!" Tigger shouted as he stood up and raised his arms in vigor. "That was one of the best jumps I've done today! Let's do it again!"

"No! Lambo hates the swing!" Lambo shouted.

Gokudera sighed in relief and proceeded to grab one of Lambo's horns. But while doing so, he spotted something in the pile of sticks—something white and somewhat fuzzy. '_Is that stupid cow's tail?_' He picked it up and examined it before Lambo snatched it away.

"Lambo's tail!" Lambo shouted as he stared at it in his hands. "You tore it off! Die, Gokudera!" He threw a grenade at Gokudera and it once again, exploded into confetti.

With a gesture as though swatting a fly, Gokudera brushed the confetti out of his hair before dragging Lambo away. He ignored the pleas of Tigger to come back and saw Pooh standing in the middle of the path waving at him. The Storm Guardian was about to ignore the yellow bear too, until the bear opened his mouth.

"Have you seen someone named Sora?" He asked ever-so-innocently.

"You mean the darn kid with spiky hair and pumpkin pants?" Gokudera asked in return. Was being in the world affecting his speech that badly?

Pooh nodded. "Might you ask him if he could, err, drop by? I was hoping that he might be able to join me and Piglet for some honey today."

"Why?"

Pooh shuffled his feet. "Well, I hear from Piglet that some foods taste better when shared."

"I have some stuff to do," Gokudera replied.

"Then, why not after your tasks are done?"

Gokudera sighed as he started walking off. "Maybe."

The idea of playing with stuffed animals, let alone talking ones, was an idea that was entirely alien to him. His own childhood revolved around playing the piano, and later, trying to get revenge on the people who may have killed his mother. He had no time to play, only time for protecting Juudaime.

* * *

The laboratory was silent and the air seemed stagnant. The only sound that could be heard was a certain scientists' finger pounding away on a keyboard, bypassing the security of the computer and accessing all the valuable data that it had to offer. Verde was both pleased and irritated. He was able to figure out how to locate and link the Vongola boxes to form a convenient form of transport between "worlds", while at the same time find out more about this universe as a whole. However, doing so left him bored and not mush else to do.

Verde looked at his crocodile, who was eyeing the doorway vigilantly for the first sign of an intruder to devour. "I don't suppose I could dissect you to pass the time, could I?"

The crocodile, for the first time in hours, looked back at his master with a look in his eyes that would either be terror or murderous intent.

"Well, I guess either a coffee break or a controlled experiment is in order." Verde adjusted his glasses with a jaded look on his face. "Since I have no one to bring me such a beverage that's high in caffeine, I'll just amuse myself with the Vongola portals."

He opened up a window that showed the locations of those possessing Dying Will Flames using small colored icons showing their appropriate flame. Verde saw that all the current Vongola Guardians were somewhere in Radiant Garden with the exception of the Rain Guardian, Takeshi Yamamoto, and maybe Mukuro Rokudo, since he was also capable to be the Mist Guardian. Maybe he could bring the both of them to Radiant Garden with enough tinkering with the computer.

He initiated the portal connection sequence without any problems, but then the computer screen started to flicker with static and random words zigzagging across the screen.

"I think I might have a slight setback…" Verde wasn't very bothered by this event, even if would have to reset the connection all over again from scratch.

The words formed symbols and symbols formed words, but none were important and only served to irritate Verde. Suddenly, an insignia unknown to him appeared in the middle of the screen. It resembled an upside-down heart with a stylized X on top of it. The scientist committed the symbol to memory before it disappeared and was replaced with XIII.

"This hacker isn't very bright." Although the attempt seemed amateur, Verde liked to confront a challenge to his genius. Finding the hacker seemed like a good-enough skirmish to get his mind off of the boredom tormenting him.

A few sparks flew from the computer before the screen finally reverted to its state before the hacking was committed. Verde sighed before checking up on his program. The data for the portal connection was lost. The scientist thought that that much was expected, but then noticed that the Vongola Guardians were suddenly disappearing from Radiant Garden.

"Hmph. So you _do_ know what you were doing back there…" Verde grinned sardonically.

* * *

As Gokudera finished up his story, Sora grew rather pissed. "Why the hell didn't you tell me that Pooh wanted a short lunch date! He must be pretty damn lonely if he's just going to be waiting there by himself!"

'_Good luck saying that in the book. Damn idiot…_' Gokudera ran a hand through his silver hair in exasperation. "Hmm?"

The Vongola boxes lit up once more, much to everyone's surprise. Aerith, Cid, and Yuffie in particular held faces of both anticipation and anxiety as to what was going to happen next.

"Well, I think Verde's going to send us straight to the lab now." Tsuna sighed in relief as he was finally going to do something that didn't involve fighting and him getting hurt.

The Vongola's relief was short-lived as the Vongola boxes started to cackle with electricity and the respective flame. They then shot out beams of light that formed a single portal, just like before. However, the portal of light started to vacuum everything in sight. Shouts filled the room as books and papers were drawn into portal. The portal was a monster that wouldn't stop devouring until its hunger was satiated.

Tsuna tried to back away, but then one of his feet slipped and he landed on the ground. As his chin solidly made contact with the ground, he tried to claw for something to hold onto, but it was to no avail as let out a high pitched scream and was slowly dragged into the portal.

"Juudaime!"

Gokudera grabbed a hold of Tsuna's arm, which kept the boss safe, but the others were not so lucky. As Sora held onto the bedpost, he could see that Ryohei was carried away into the portal that his own Vongola box created outside the doorway.

_'I have to think of something—and fast_!'

The frantic yelling of everyone couldn't be discerned from one another, and the whirling void continued to draw everything towards itself. As if the portal knew that it hadn't consumed anyone, tendrils of light shot out and grabbed everyone. Gokudera and Tsuna disappeared into the portal headfirst, with Sora about to follow. Without any other option, Sora summoned his keyblade and shot out a beam towards the portal.

"I did it!" The Keyblade Master grinned as the portal proceeded to close. "Huh?"

In retaliation, the portal lashed out and pulled Sora in before finally closing.

"Aerith! What are we going to do?" Yuffie exclaimed.

"Whatever we can do. But…" Aerith's voice was coated with uncertainty. "…I just don't know what that is at this point…"

* * *

Thirteen thrones stood side by side in a circular room. Nearly half of the seats were empty, signifying dissent. A figure sat atop the highest throne. Clad in black leather, and a hood shadowing his face, his steely eyes were hidden from view in the presence of the others gathered. He was silent throughout the meeting that was arranged, preferring the ones he trusted to speak for him.

"So, Vexen, did you finish your hacking yet?" Xigbar asked someone to his right.

"Of course I did! Such a matter would be trivial for a man of my genius. It was child's play considering the man whose program I defiled can hardly call himself a scientist." Vexen's boasts grated on everyone's ears. He would've gone on until someone not of the Organization rudely interrupted him.

"Hey! That stuff is boring! Get to the point already!" Skull repeatedly tapped his foot on the admittedly small platform in the center of the room. "Did we scatter the Vongola or not?"

"'_We'_? I remember that you did absolutely nothing pivotal for this accomplishment."

"At least I didn't get myself knocked out like a certain piece of crap bookworm!"

Zexion sat quietly, unwilling to waste his time on such an imbecile. Instead, he continued the discussion. "I sensed that the two Keyblade Masters, Sora and Riku, were also included among the six Vongola members. However, the task of capturing them may not be as simple as it sounds."

"So why don't we make a gamble?" Luxord proposed. "By opposing us, the Vongola risk their chances of returning to their universe. We don't have lives to put on the line, so it is already in our favor."

"No life to risk, yet you still die? How redundant…" Viper instantly appeared in the room, next to Skull, without warning. "Why gamble when you can simply get the job done? Speaking of which, I still want my payment for supplying you with all the information I have on the little mafia group."

The incarceration of the Vongola will be a simple task for me. All you have to do is pay the right price."

"We require that you detain at least one member of the Vongola for us as one last task. We will also comply with the terms of your services," Xaldin agreed. "But failure to comply with the terms of ours will result in strict consequence." As the nobody said this, a lance materialized right next to him.

"I wouldn't even dream of it…" The illusionist's face was hidden from view. Any signs of deception that could be there were hidden from the rest of those gathered.

"Good. It's bad enough that half of our guys have gone and betrayed us. I really couldn't stand it if one more went against us," Xigbar replied.

"Would you really?" Zexion retorted. "We have no hearts to mislead us, so why would you act out this farce? I would have expected more from someone of your nature."

"We act because it entertains," Luxord answered. "What is a game without any tension? It would be boring and lifeless. Just like our existence."

"Well, I think it's just about time we got going." Xigbar clapped his hands together briskly. "Our goal is simple: capture the Vongola, preferably alive. Capturing a Keyblade wielder will result in a few bonus points. Now, let's go."

Each of the shady individuals exited the room through dark violet portals. All but two remained. The stoic leader still sat atop the throne, as if haunting the room like an apparition. The other being left in the room simply observed the other silently. When he saw that he wouldn't get so much as a sigh out of him, he disappeared as well.

* * *

((Well, how's that for a shitty chapter. There will be a poll on my page. Look at it. And…I graduated eighth grade. Whoopee! The greatest graduation present would be more reviews. Reviews would make me a happy girl. AND I MEAN IT! Give me constructive criticism in any way possible! Insult or compliment my writing style! VOI! **JUST REVIEW**!

Err…I'm also holding the next chapter hostage. For at least three reviews. FORGIVE ME!))


	5. Just Tune

_I LOVE YOU ALL! I love everyone who ever reviewed, favorited, and alerted this story. I also thank those who may not like this story, but chose to take the time to read it. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!_

_I'm planning on keeping each chapter be centered on a certain group of fighters. This way, I hope the story will seem less rushed and you generous readers can indulge in fight scenes that are crappily put together. If that's not what you like, then FORGIVE ME! Oh yeah, BE PREPARED!_

* * *

**Chapter 5: Just Tune**

_The things I want to protect are here, following me without hesitation._

* * *

Her existence was at the very least, flawed. Flawed more so than anyone else. This is because it was from the very darkest depths of despair and sadness that she was brought back to the plane of the living. There were no tears of happiness or shouts of joy at her arrival.

There was, however, a gentle smile gracing her lips. She remembered that there was someone with whom she was very close at the time of her death. That certain someone seemed like they were coated in the warmest and gentlest of flames, with the most sincere form of caring in their eyes. That person stayed with her in her last moments.

She wanted to find that person. She wanted to be with him again. She wanted the chance to embrace him that eluded her for so long. With this desire, she clawed through the darkness, and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Gradually, ever so slowly, she found the light. With all the strength she could muster, she grasped it, and clung to it and tried to think of nothing more than the longing of being with those that truly cared about her.

She wasn't going down without a fight, dammit!

Marluxia was surprised that the new kid could pull his own weight. He fought the heartless without hesitation and little explanation. He was surprisingly chipper about anything and didn't let anything get him down. In a way, he could be comparable to a tank.

* * *

God, Yamamoto Takeshi was annoying as hell.

Whenever they tried talking to him about a situation, he would smile and nod. Of course, that wasn't bad, but he would somehow kill the conversation by introducing the topic of either baseball or how he put milk on nearly everything he ate. Larxene made it worse by asking him about it every ten minutes, knowing that it would grate on his nerves each time.

"So, Yamamoto, what kind of food do you like to eat the most?" Larxene would ask.

"Oh, I like to eat anything with milk in it!" Yamamoto would answer. "I like to eat milk-flavored gelatin, milk sherbet, and even milk on bi bam bap! It's important to have lots of calcium in your bones, so you would get injured less. That's really important because I'm a star baseball player!"

"Oh~!" Larxene would exclaim like an energetic preschooler. "That's really cool! So, how do you hit a home run?"

"Well, that's easy!" Yamamoto would state as-a-matter-of-factly. "The ball comes gyuu-gyuun~! Then you wait with your waists guut-guut~! Then you hit it with a bat ba ba ban~! Then that's it! The ball you just hit goes flying and it's a homerun!"

"That's amazing!" Larxene would say right after. "Isn't that right, _Marluxia_?"

"Yamamoto, Larxene," Marluxia began in monotone after a repeated exchange. However, despite his attempt to hide it, there was clearly agitation and hints of murderous intent in his voice. "Do me a favor, and _shut the hell up_. Repeated failure to comply with that one request will result in your immediate _decapitation_…"

Larxene and Yamamoto were visibly shocked. However, they simply looked at each other and shrugged. As they walked along, Marluxia looked back every now and then to look at the both of them, just to make sure that they weren't getting into any trouble. It was unlikely, but one could never be too sure. But each time Marluxia looked eyed Yamamoto and saw him simply smiling and waving at him, he felt as if fate was trying to give him one very large and very unsubtle, middle finger.

"Hey, Marluxia," Yamamoto called out a few minutes later.

"What do you want?" Marluxia asked. His fingers consistently twitched, as if begging to have the scythe within their grasp.

"I'm wondering, why are we wandering around in just this one world?" Yamamoto asked. "Can't you teleport us to another one? Or is there another reason why we're here?"

Marluxia found it surprising that the baseball star would ask a good question. He stopped and looked at the rest of the Second District. "Teleporting and using portals have become increasingly difficult for me, to say the least. I can only go to a different world one or two times each day. It's a strenuous task because I have to use the cloud flames, as you would call it."

"What about staying in this world?" Yamamoto asked again. "Did you know that Larxene and I would end up here?"

"Well, that, is less than easy to explain," Marluxia replied. "I'm not entirely why, but I could sense a sort of…power, so to speak, in this world. What's more is that I didn't expect Larxene to find you and somehow appear here by using your box portal." The mauve-haired man paused for a second. "Now that I think about it, I thought about leaving you in Twilight Town and pursuing this 'power' for myself."

"Because, you know, you're such a considerate, caring person…" Larxene rebuked with sarcastic enthusiasm. "But…now that you think about it, I can sense _something _here…"

"Good, so we established something," Marluxia stated. He looked at the two in silence. "Wait…"

"What?" Larxene and Yamamoto asked in unison.

"You both talked," Marluxia grinned evilly. "The next one who talks will get hurt." Marluxia looked at Yamamoto, who was _still smiling_. "Three strikes and you're _out_."

* * *

Skull wrote down what was happening between Larxene, Marluxia, and Yamamoto onto a small notebook. While hiding in a nearby alley, he furiously jotted down what they were saying with a pencil.

"This is great!" Skull stated to himself silently. "I can't really take one of them hostage, not while all three of them are there. But I'll make up for it by giving the others vital information! Yeah! Then I'll be able to sit on one of those really cool looking thrones!"

"Might I inquire as to what you're doing?"

Skull jumped up and nearly yelled if it wasn't for the fact that Vexen was that surprised him. "Well, for your information, I'm collecting data from them! They say some pretty important stuff!" The Arcobaleno held the notebook up at the scientist.

Vexen snatched the notebook and flipped through the pages. After he was finished reading what was written down, he tore the notebook in half.

"My notebook! You owe me 500 munny!" Skull whined. However, he got back to the matter at hand. "Plus, I can't take them _all_ on! I'll get killed! You can't seriously expect me to actually capture at least one of them on my own! I get enough flak from the other Arcobaleno as it is!"

"Hmph." Vexen crossed his arms. "Well, I doubt anyone of your level of competence would get anything done right."

"Well, why don't you show this li'l whippersnapper how it was done in the olden days!" Skull replied in a mocking voice with an audible 'old man' accent.

Vexen smirked. "Well, certainly you patronizing jackass."

The scientist's hands suddenly were suddenly alight by the blue rain flames dancing around his fingertips. The rain flames began to dissipate into the air, but could only be seen if one looked closely enough. Patches of the air above them seemed to swirl around in random patterns, similar to the effect of seeing water that isn't really there on a humid summer day. These distorted pieces of the sky seemed to collect above the Larxene, Marluxia, and Yamamoto as they were talking. The pieces suddenly turned blue and condensed to form ice shards suspended right above their heads.

"You both talked," Marluxia grinned evilly. "The next one who talks will get hurt." Marluxia looked at Yamamoto, who was _still smiling_. "Three strikes and you're _out_."

"Guys…" Larxene started rather shakily. "I suggest you move." The girl jumped a meter back and tossed a knife at the large ice shard, and caused it to break in half.

The ice shards began to rain down, prompting Yamamoto and Marluxia to summon their weapons. Yamamoto deflected each shard away with his Shigure Kintoki, but failed to deflect a small portion of them, resulting in him getting scratches from the smaller ones. To correct this, he held his sword backwards in his hand and spun around, creating a whirlwind-like shield out of his own rain flames.

As soon as Marluxia had his scythe in his hands, the weapon danced within them, warding away each shard with the skill and elegance of a dancer. Not one shard scratch got to him. His movements were barely seen, and one could barely tell which direction his scythe was headed. Each sweeping movement would slice another batch of shards in half. When the macabre dance was finished, a small shower of petals collected at his feet.

Larxene scanned the area for any signs of the attacker. Traverse Town was devoid of any life since its inhabitants all left for Hollow Bastion. She only knew one person that could summon ice at will. If there was any sign of Vexen, she would strike without mercy.

The silence only lasted for a few seconds before everyone spotted a large shadow on the ground that was slowly growing bigger and bigger. Larxene and Marluxia leapt up to higher ground while Yamamoto swiftly ran up the set of stairs on the opposite side of where the other two were. All three braced for impact.

"Ha ha ha! No one escapes the wrath of Skull!" an annoying voice called out.

Five enormous clumps of metal landed on the concrete, one right after the other in a deafening crash, with Skull jumping right on top of the largest piece. The Arcobaleno crossed his arms. "Hey! Aren't you supposed to be running away from me? You're supposed to be running away from how impressive I am!"

"Hey, kid!" Larxene called out to Yamamoto. "Who the hell is this idiot!"

"This is Skull!" Yamamoto replied. "You don't have to worry about him!" He looked at the Arcobaleno before adding, "…although he's a bit taller than I remember!"

"Of course I'm taller!" Skull shouted in aggravation. "Getting sent to these 'worlds' was probably the best thing that's happened to me! I'm taller, more intimidating, and not to mention, WAY more powerful!" Skull pumped a fist in the air before pointing at Yamamoto. "It's not going to be easy to kidnap you, but with the help of this guy, it'll be a piece of cake!" The Arcobaleno stomped on the piece of metal that was underneath him. "Hey, buddy, WAKE UP!"

Yamamoto and Larxene were surprised to find the clumps of metal roaring to life, in addition to being coated in the violet cloud flames. Marluxia, however, was intrigued by the unfolding events. "The metal…is a heartless. And…he controls the Heartless with the use of cloud flames. Interesting."

"Marly!" Larxene shouted at the assassin. "Stop contemplating on how pretty the ground is and get in the game! The faster we beat this guy, the faster we can look for that 'thing' you were talking about. Chances are, this idiot's looking for it too!"

The pieces of the Guard Armor heartless floated in the air and assembled themselves, with Skull standing on its shoulder. "Attack!"

As the Guard Armor reeled back its arm, Yamamoto readied his sword in a defensive stance. As the Guard Armor punched the railing of the platform that Yamamoto was on, the swordsman ran on top of the outstretched arm and tried to slash at Skull. The Arcobaleno however, anticipated this, and jumped back onto the ground. He proceeded to summon his motorcycle by releasing it from a box.

"Catch me if you can!" He boasted.

As Marluxia went off to aid Yamamoto, Larxene dashed towards the Arcobaleno and swiped at him with the knives situated between her fingers. As the Arcobaleno sped away to get out of range of her attacks, Larxene smirked as the bottoms of her high heels glowed with green lightning flames. She raced forward with blinding speed, the glow of the lightning flames accentuating each step she took. Within a blink of an eye, she caught up to Skull's motorcycle.

"Not so fast," a voice coated with malice said to Larxene. With a wave of Vexen's hand, the ground beneath the nymph became coated in ice, causing her to slip forward and connect solidly with the floor. With a snap of the scientist's fingers, ice encased Larxene's legs and completely killing any feeling she had in her legs. His efforts earned him a vengeful glare from the girl.

"I had this covered! You should've just left this to me, old man!" Skull whined as he turned his bike around and skidded to a stop.

"Youth is wasted on the imbecilic," Vexen rebuked. "If you didn't notice, you were about to be knocked over. That would've given you a few fractures and, in the worst case scenario, a broken limb or two." Running a hand through his hair, he sighed, "Let's hurry up and capture the swordsman. That's what we came here to do."

"Finally, we agree on something!"

Marluxia, noticing Larxene's plight, warped away from the Guard Armor and behind Vexen. "Another world awaits, and you're going."

Vexen turned around to try and bash Marluxia with his shield, but Marluxia simply rolled onto his side and onto his feet. His grip on the pink scythe loosened as he jumped into the air, twirled his weapon around in his hands and slashed in the air, delivering a powerful wave of energy towards his opponent. Vexen blocked the attack with his shield, but was forced back several feet by the immense power of the attack with the heels of his boots digging into the ground. Marluxia's scythe cackled with red energy as he made a speedy descent with his weapon raised high above his head. Vexen made quick steps backwards to dodge as Marluxia landed and planted his scythe into the ground.

Skull looked at both of the ensuing fights in front of him and then looked at Larxene, who was trying to break the ice by repeatedly striking it with a lightning flame-infused knife. "So…if I free you from that ice, will you agree to go on a date with me?"

"Not! On! Your! Pathetic! Life!" Larxene struck the ice between each word with great exasperation. "Go! To! HELL!"

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood today, or I would've run you over with my bike!" Skull stomped on the ground and pumped his fists in the air. "Hah! Your very life is in my hands! My rule is omnipotent!"

Yamamoto eyed the fight between Marluxia and Vexen and couldn't help but marvel at the proficiency as well as elegance that the assassin had while handling his weapon. It was then that Yamamoto decided to amount to that kind of expertise sometime soon, in order to face the arduous path that lay in front of him.

"_VOI! In order to get stronger, you must dedicate yourself to the sword_!"

Yamamoto smiled as he realized what Squalo would say to him at a time like this. He shook of this daydream as the Guard Armor aimed its fist at Yamamoto's head. Yamamoto ducked and rolled to his left as the gauntlet was instantly embedded in the brick wall behind him, air rushing past the swordsman's scalp as it narrowly missed his ear. He cried out, "First Form: Shajiku no  
Ame!" He thrust his sword forward into the gauntlet as it struggled to escape the concrete surrounding it. Like one of the Guard Armor's legs before it, the gauntlet dissipated into the air and left nothing behind.

"So, I have to defeat each individual limb before attacking the torso, huh?" Yamamoto mused. "Eh?"

The Guard Armor, as if hearing Yamamoto's thinking aloud, proceeded to regenerate his two lost limbs, adding to the warrior's frustration. The two limbs glowed with the cloud flame, with more intensity than the rest of its body. The Guard Armor's pieces individually flew up into the air and came back down with pulverizing force. Yamamoto easily slashed through the two pieces that he previously destroyed.

1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10…

The same two limbs regenerated again.

"So that's how you work!" Yamamoto exclaimed triumphantly. "The rate at which your limbs regenerated just doubled! So that means…" Yamamoto gripped his sword in confident hands. "…I can exploit that to silence you!"

The Guard Armor repeatedly punched the ground where Yamamoto once stood, but the warrior promptly sidestepped and slashed through both of its idle feet. One of them took five seconds to regenerate, while the other took twenty. In the other fifteen seconds that took the other foot to propagate, Yamamoto destroyed the gauntlets still stuck in the ground. Grinning, he was about to rush forward for another attack, but the Guard Armor's limbs flew up in the air, and its lone torso landed on the ground and started to spin rapidly and uncontrollably.

Yamamoto went airborne as he was knocked back by the incoming swirling mass. As he stumbled back up, he mumbled, "And I thought this was going to be an easy fight…"

Yamamoto destroyed each of the Guard Armor's limbs easily, yet he couldn't get past that last line of defense of the torso spiraling and keeping distance. It would keep up this routine until its limbs regenerated. Yamamoto inwardly frowned at this difficult situation.

'_I can't use any close range attacks, or the torso would start spinning again. I can't use Yarazu no Ame or I lose both my sword and my life. That thing's covered on all sides, so I have to attack…from above_!' Yamamoto jumped into the air, coated Shigure Kintoki in high purity rain flames and struck down from above, shouting, "Eighth Formation: Shinotsuku Ame!"

Yamamoto cleanly sliced the Guard Armor in half, causing it fall over. Yamamoto briefly looked around for the limbs to see if they regenerated and when he saw that he had nothing to worry about, turned around to run and help Marluxia. However, little did he know that the Guard Armor had one last attack waiting for him. Its helmet opened up to reveal two yellow, beady eyes staring straight at him. The torso floated up into the air and turned sideways. A large beam of light emanated from the hole in the center of its body and aimed ever so precisely at the unknown swordsman running away.

"You're s-such an idiot!"

Yamamoto swiftly turned around, and saw the cannon fire at the corner of his eye. However, the blast was knocked into missing him by a few mere millimeters. The blast was close enough to singe the very tip of the hair atop his head. If the blast was any closer, his head would have been reduced to gushing blood and remaining brain tissue. The swordsman saw that Larxene made a swift attack to the Opposite Armor, knocking its blast off-course and finally killing it.

"Larxene!" Yamamoto exclaimed.

The girl was writhing on the floor, and shivering uncontrollably. "D-Don't worry about me! I already knocked out that 'Skull' friend of yours. He's such an annoying little asshole…"

"How'd you do it?" Yamamoto asked. He looked up, and sure enough, Skull was lying on the ground, unconscious. "He's an Arcobaleno, I doubt that you gave him a lasting injury."

"How did I do it?" Larxene repeated. She pumped a fist in the air triumphantly. "Easy! I gave him a critical hit to the 'nads! Hell yeah!"

Yamamoto didn't know whether or not to be happy for her or worried his own precious gift that rests between his legs might be destroyed by Larxene's high heels.

Marluxia briefly glanced at Yamamoto and Larxene before redirecting his attention to his bout with Vexen. Vexen blocked another strike from Marluxia before pushing him away and causing large spikes of ice to rise from the ground. The mauve-haired assassin wore a face of shock before regaining his composure and standing his ground.

"Marluxia!" Larxene shouted as loud as her chilled lungs would allow. "What the hell are you doing! You're gonna die, dammit! Get the hell out of there!"

Marluxia almost seemed disgusted at her cries of concern and casually flipped his hair, as if to say, 'I'm above dodging because I'm so freaking beautiful!' While keeping his thoughts to himself, Marluxia austerely raised his scythe over his head with both arms, twirled it several times, and slammed it into the ground in a hammer-like fashion. A virtually earth-splitting crack appeared where the scythe was struck into the ground and proceeded to devour each of the ice spikes springing forth. Vexen's smug face turned to one of horror as he realized that he lost his advantage and quickly created a floating ice platform for him to stand on as the ground underneath his feet crumbled away. Marluxia shot a brief glowered at Larxene before continuing the fight.

"S-Smug little snake!" Larxene struggled to yell as she tried to recover from the cold of Vexen's attack.

"You're kinda quick to lose your temper, aren't you?" Yamamoto asked her.

"Marluxia's right. You _do_ need to shut the hell up."

Marluxia chuckled as the banter between the two continued. Then he turned to Vexen, who was glaring knives at him. The assassin smirked as massive, thorny vines erupted from the dark chasm in the middle of the ground. Vexen silently cursed as he gathered rain flames in the middle of hand, and released all of that energy in one blast of ice. The projectile raced through the air with magnificent speed; fast enough that even Marluxia couldn't keep up with it, and could only guard himself with his scythe. As the attack made contact, the speed of the ice block was fast enough to knock away the assassin's scythe, and soon after, freeze his dominant arm.

"So you could put up a fight after all…" Marluxia sighed as he gave a strained wave of his free arm. "No matter. The stinging pain I feel now isn't even a fraction of the agony you'll suffer."

The thorny vines closed in on Vexen, while the scientist commanded the platform of ice to over away from the chasm. When that failed, the vines repeatedly bashed on his shield, with scientist underneath growing more confident as the attempts failed. The vines recoiled, but they came together as twisting and writhing mass of greenery as they sped towards the academic. Vexen raised the shield with assurance, certain that it would hold the vines back.

"For a scientist, you're not too bright, are you?" Marluxia chuckled.

Vexen's eyes widened as the vines penetrated the shield, completely snapping it in two as soon as they had contact. "GAH!" With that chilling shriek that filled the perpetual night sky, Vexen was impaled with the vines, each thorn dug into his body and indulged in the excruciating pain that the scientist was overwhelmed with. With his platform of ice dissipating into the atmosphere, a growing puddle of blood formed on the ground.

Marluxia scowled at his frozen arm, but heard a faint sound from above him. "So…you're still alive, huh?"

Vexen's blood continued to drip off of his body, and more was coughed up from his mouth. Marluxia commanded the vines to brutally throw his body onto the ground, and he grinned with as much malice that he could muster despite the growing numbness in his arm. The academic was bending over, struggling to prevent his arms and limbs to give way despite the anguish racking his body. Blood leaked from his mouth while he used one of arms to try and prevent the blood from escaping from the gaping hole in his abdomen. Vexen strained to look up at one approaching Marluxia.

"You look pathetic right now," Marluxia said condescendingly. "Not only that, you were easy to take down. Fortunately for you, that last attack sent my scythe flying. So…instead of my hand finishing you off, it'll most likely be Xemnas's."

Vexen's face paled considerably at the mention of the Superior's name. Even then, he gritted his teeth and spat blood in Marluxia's general direction, as his vision was starting to blur. "This isn't the end of me, I assure you!"

"If you're asking for a rematch later, then I reject," Marluxia grinned. "You'll just get beat down again." Marluxia was about to follow up with another boast, but then he saw faint cloud flames surrounding the scientist's body.

"Sorry, we're going to have to cut this game short!" Skull shouted from afar. "We're currently outnumbered, and fighting at this point wouldn't be fair to us! We'll be going now!"

Skull briskly snapped his fingers, and caused portals to appear from underneath from him and Vexen. The portals quickly enveloped them both, with Skull's laughter fading away with him as he disappeared. Marluxia wryly smiled as the traces of the cloud flames diminished. "Well, I doubted that it would end here…"

Yamamoto and Larxene caught up to Marluxia, who was simply standing there silently. The swordsman held the other's weapon in his hands. "I believe this is yours," he said as he held it out to the assassin. "It's not a good thing to lose your weapon, so…here."

Marluxia turned around and glared at Yamamoto, who was _still smiling_. After snatching the weapon away from his ally, the assassin asked, "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Larxene and Yamamoto asked in confusion.

"What you feel in the air is my disdain for you two that is slowly, but surely, growing," Marluxia snarked. He ran a hand through his mauve hair before something went off in the back of his head. Looking around, he asked something else, "Hey, do you hear something?"

"What is it now? Is it the sound of our IQ dropping?" Larxene growled.

"No…" Marluxia replied. "I think what we're looking for…is nearby."

* * *

Riku missed the use of the Corridors of Darkness. Sure, it signified his belonging to the darkness, yet it was a convenient mode of transportation for him. One only needed to walk through the obsidian portal to get to where they needed to be. It wasn't like the gummi ship and its habit of crashing in incompetent hands. It was reliable and there was little to no consequence of using it.

The box portals had none of that.

Now it was because of them that they had no idea where they were, nearly covered in bruises from crash landing so much, and plunged into a whole new adventure that he wanted over and done with.

"It's a step in the right direction after all~!" a cheery voice sang out.

Riku grunted as he rubbed his eyes. Opening his eyes, the scent of something burning caught her nose. He wanted to open his eyes, but kept them closed because of the glaring bright light of the campfire. Turning away and rubbing his eyes, he looked up and found a starry sky above him. The sound of crashing waves graced his ears. Concluding that he was on a beach, he realized that Destiny Islands never seemed to be this peaceful, even at night. It must have been the frantic atmosphere that came about from sparring all the time.

"Oh! You're awake!"

Riku quickly turned around to find someone tending to a campfire. His blonde hair was styled strangely, and that was saying something in the myriad of worlds with spiky-haired allies. His face was somewhat feminine, and a smile adorned his face.

"You two just fell right out of the sky! You won't believe how surprised—and worried I was!" the boy laughed. Riku stared at him blankly, unable to say anything. "Since it was almost night time, I thought that the most logical thing to do would build a campfire, yeah? I mean, you have to keep warm, especially since we're on a beach and stuff…"

"W-Who are you?" Riku asked tentatively.

"Me? My name's Demyx!" the boy answered cheerfully.

"An 'X' is in your name…" Riku said to himself. "You're one of Organization XIII aren't you! Why are you here?" Riku summoned his keyblade and pointed it at Demyx.

"Wha?" Demyx stuttered nervously. "I-I don't want to fight! I just wanted to make sure you guys were okay! And besides—I'm not with them anymore! I ran away from them!" Demyx continued to wave his arms around in fear of what would happen. The blue eyes of the nobody, however, seemed blank and indiscernible from what they looked like mere seconds ago. No one could really tell if he was saying the truth. "A-And besides…I don't know why, but I can't seem to move my left arm as much as I wanted to! If I wanted to actually snuff you guys out, I wouldn't be able to do it anyway! I suck as a fighter!"

Riku slowly lowered his keyblade until it hung at his side. However, he didn't dismiss it and eyed the nobody conspicuously. "All right…I'm going to hold you to that. But if you do anything that'll make me change my mind, I won't hesitate to—"

"You're awesome!" Demyx clamped onto Riku and hugged him as tightly as his arms would allow. "Since you gave me this chance, I'm going to be the best ally you could possibly hope for! I won't let you down!"

"Get. Off. Me," Riku said with difficulty. He felt as if his lungs were being squeezed out through his throat. "It's not that I don't enjoy your company, but please…it's getting hard to breathe!"

"Heh heh…" Demyx chuckled as he let go of Riku. "Don't hesitate to ask me about anything, okay?"

"Jeez…"

Riku and Demyx looked over to find…Ryohei Sasagawa, who was waking up.

"So…I'm stuck with him…" Riku sighed.

"An athlete needs to have his sleep! Otherwise, he won't be able beat the weakest of opponents!" Ryohei shouted as he jumped on his feet and pumped his fists in the air. He looked down and saw Demyx sitting in front of him. "Hey! Who are you!"

"I'm Demyx! From now on, I'm your ally! Isn't it awesome!" Demyx started to fire off a bunch of over-the-top energetic sentences that could rival Ryohei's enthusiasm. "What's your name!"

"I'm Ryohei Sasagawa! My favorite thing is BOXING! My motto is EXTREME!"

Riku looked closer, and he could practically see sun flames emanating from his body. Such is the resolve who lives out each second as if it was his last one. As he saw the two pass the conversational ball to each other, he wondered if they were ever going to stop talking. Not willing to wait it out, he lied against the sand and closed his eyes, trying to block out the heated talking of his two companions with the gentle sound of crashing waves. "It's going to be a _very long _night…"

* * *

((NO DEMYX YOU DON'T SUCK AS A FIGHTER STOP LYING!

Well, I just wanted to try experimenting on fighting scenes and see if I could do them well enough to satisfy you amazing readers! I hope I did well. Also, reintroducing characters without making it seem rushed is stupidly hard and annoying.

Those of you who live in California might see me at the Anime Expo! I may or may not be going this year, but if I do, it'll be on Saturday.

Thank you for reading. Kufufu~ I hope you review…))


	6. Burn My Dread

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED, ALERTED, AND FAVORITED THIS FANFIC DESPITE MY CRAPPY UPDATES! I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH OR USE TOO MANY CAPITAL LETTERS!

* * *

**Chapter 6: Burn My Dread**

_Nightly dance of bleeding swords reminds me that I still live._

* * *

The girl with a flawed existence felt a slight breeze against her cheeks. When she finally opened her eyes, she found a richly colored and vibrant world around her. Dazed, and confused, she looked to the sky above her and watched the clouds silently float by. It was rather calming, simply lying on the grass like that. But she knew that she had to get moving or she would never find the one person special to her. However, in order to get to where he was, she had to know wherever she was.

"Just where am I?" she asked.

She looked around, but found nothing more than fields and hills of grass and flowers with the small forests that dotted the landscape. The amounts of bright color that filled her line of vision were almost blinding.

"Who are you?" the girl asked. "Do I know you?"

"Alas, you do not know me, but you shall!" the bird replied. "My name is Owl, a resident of these 100 Acre Woods. I remember when my forefathers had first arrived here in this wond'rous land…"

Owl proceeded to explain much more, but the girl didn't listen due to lack of interest. She instead looked at the purple flower and, after some time passed, plucked it from the ground and stared at it intently.

"It appears that you, my young lady, are confused," Owl stated with an unexplainable exuberance. "Perhaps that is because it is rather unsightly to hold a conversation like this out here! If you shall follow me to my home, I'd be happy to carry on!"

The girl nodded slightly and struggled to get up. Her legs felt numb and her feet felt were as heavy as cinderblocks. Nevertheless, she stood up and began to walk. She didn't know where she was, why she was there, and why she was talking to a bird, but all she knew is that she wanted to be with her friends. That longing seemed to be the only thing to keep her going.

* * *

In Riku's heart, there was always a deep fear that he would return to the darkness.

(_No one's truly rid of it forever_,) Riku would think to himself from time to time.

Despite the fact that he was practically sandwiched by how energetic and enthusiastic Sora and Kairi were back on Destiny Islands, he couldn't help but think of the worst possible scenario. Maybe the Dark Firaga he accidentally fired at Hibari was an indication of what was to come. What if he woke up one morning to find slicked back hair and a twisted smile in his reflection? What if he closed his eyes and found Xehanort's heartless there, waiting to take control of his heart again? These stupid things panicked him endlessly and gave him many a sleepless night.

However, Riku slept well the night he met Demyx, despite the paranoia he was plaguing himself with.

Riku opened his eyes to find the standard blue sky with the occasional white and wispy cloud to float along. The sounds of gulls cawing overhead and waves crashing almost gave reason for the silverette to believe that he was still in the world of Destiny Islands, protecting the peace that they had. Unfortunately for the keybearer, he realized that the sound of waves crashing was too loud for him to be either at his home on the mainland or at the special island where he, Sora, and Kairi spent their time. Groaning, he rubbed his drowsy eyes and sat up.

"It's too damn quiet for Ryohei and Demyx to still be here…" Riku said to himself as he looked around. Sighing, he jumped onto his feet and took a moment to inhale the ocean breeze. "Where the hell did they go?"

A shadow loomed overhead, which Riku immediately noticed. The keybearer stepped backwards and shielded his eyes against the small sandstorm that was whipped up due to the impact of whatever fell. After seeing the outline of a humanlike figure, said figure instantly started trying to punch Riku. Luckily, the keybearer instinctively dodged each blow by stepping either to the side or backwards.

"EXTREME HIGH SPEED BARRAGE!" Ryohei shouted at the top of his lungs.

Riku's limbs tensed up as he realized just how sharp Ryohei's punches could be. As he instinctively dodged the punches, the keybearer could feel the air rushing past his ears with each missed attack. He narrowly ducked and dodged the blows, the boxer using the momentum of the last to swing instantly into the next. The keybearer's shoes dug into the sand as he continually stepped back, only to back up into the rocky cliff behind him. Riku's eyes widened as he realized that he was about to be flattened by Ryohei's nest punch. Without any delay, he summoned his keyblade and blocked the boxer's punch with the broad side of the weapon.

"That won't stop me!" Ryohei yelled furiously. He furrowed his eyebrows before calling out, "MAXIMUM CANNON!"

Fearing the worst, Riku forced Ryohei back with the keyblade. He grit his teeth as Ryohei reeled his fist back. Time suddenly started to slow down for Riku, and the only thing he could hear would be his heartbeat. Riku was about to leap to the side, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw the boxer's fist suddenly went to the side, barely missed Riku's cheek and embedded itself into the rocky cliff behind the keybearer. Riku looked back behind him and found a crater that had a radius several meters wide. Acknowledging that his skull could've been a part of that, Riku gulped loudly, but then looked back at Ryohei as he took his fist out of the cliff.

"Those were some EXTREME reflexes!" Ryohei shouted, as if there was nothing wrong with dropping out of the sky and punching away at your ally. "Hey! If you could go back to my world, you should join the EXTREME BOXING CLUB! A guy with reflexes like yours could easily go far in the ring!"

Riku placed an exasperated hand to an equally exasperated forehead, but not before looking at the small amount of blood seeping out of the scratch on Riku's cheek that was inflicted by Ryohei's Maximum Cannon. "S-So…you just wanted to test me on how fast I could dodge your attacks? Good grief…" Riku ran a hand through his hair. (_At least Sora takes the time to ask me before sparring_…)

A ghastly sound reached Riku's ears, but a few seconds later, it occurred to him that it was his stomach growling. "Ryohei, is Demyx getting us food? I don't see him anywhere."

Ryohei nodded. "I bet he's going to get us an EXTREME BREAKFAST!"

Riku decided not to entertain the thought of what an extreme breakfast would even look like, much less taste like. He hoped it wouldn't be spicy. "Well, it would be useless to just wait here. Let's go help Demyx out."

After Ryohei complied, he told Riku that the nocturne went to the nearby village for food. "But…walking there would be rather uneventful! Let's run there! TO THE EXTREME!" He pulled out his box with unequalled enthusiasm and was close to pressing his ring into it, however, he stopped. Hearing something distant, his eyes lost their energetic gleam and soon became filled with anxiety. "What is it?"

"I heard it too," Riku replied. He summoned his keyblade and gripped it tightly before rushing forward with the boxer right behind him.

The sound was faint and both of them could barely hear it, but it surely was there. The sounds started to come together in frequency, and it changed volume and pitch. After realizing this, Riku concluded that it had to be a musical instrument, and one with strings. The song that he was hearing sounded beautiful, but several notes seemed like they shouldn't be there, signifying that the musician was in a frantic situation and simply couldn't concentrate.

"Hi guys!" Demyx turned towards their direction with a pleasantly surprised smile. "Aren't these guys, adora—OW!"

The musician strummed away at his instrument, summoning beings of water in his shape. The translucent, aquatic entities were surrounded by a faint rain flame, and were much faster than Riku had expected. They swiped at the Heartless rather weakly, but they still managed to do some decent damage. The Heartless were only of the pint-sized variety like Tornado Steps, Rabid Dogs, and a few varieties of plant Heartless, which meant that the water clones would only get hit if they stood exactly still. With them being natural dancers, there were no casualties. The Heartless were a piece of cake and complete pushovers to Riku, but Ryohei simply jumped in and punched away.

"Any enemies, no matter how small, need to be dealt with MAXIMUM POWER!" Ryohei slammed into his fist into a nearby Icy Cube Heartless. With an unexpected "SQUEAK," the creature dissipated and left the captive heart to fly away into sky. "One down!"

Riku was bored with such a simple predicament and found it rather sad that Demyx was so frailly behaved in battle. That said, the keybearer slowly made his way over to where Demyx was frantically playing his instrument. Whenever a small Heartless got into his line of vision, he would dismally hit it on the head with the dull end of the keyblade and move on. The whole thing seemed like a lifeless version of Whack-A-Mole. When he got to Demyx's location, he simply observed Demyx's reactions.

"Th-that hurts, you know! Ouch! And I don't have a heart for you to take—that doesn't tickle!—because I'm a nobody!" Demyx shrieked with worry. The blonde's lack of self-control led to his playing getting noticeably sloppy quite often and making his water clones miss a step and consequently having one or two return to their original state as water vapor. "I don't want to do this! I should've just run away when I had the chance!"

"Then why didn't you?" Riku asked as he set his keyblade into the sand. "It would be simple to just run away from the Heartless."

For once, Demyx calmed down, but then he also stopped playing his instrument. "Well, they keep coming after me no matter how far I run away!"

Ryohei quickly finished up the last of the Heartless and pumped his fist in the air in triumph. Riku half-expected Ryohei to lash out at the two of them for skipping out in the last minute, but then figured that it served no negative purpose and gave the boxer more of a fulfilling workout. Riku then turned to Demyx and asked sternly.

"Earlier, you stated that they would just respawn, right?"

"Er…yeah?" Demyx scratched the back of his head. "Respawn means to come back, right?"

"Then, they only stopped once Ryohei and I got here," Riku continued, ignoring Demyx's pointing out the obvious. "That's odd, considering that my keyblade could act as a beacon of sorts for the Heartless. If they did something that's against their nature, then that means someone is controlling them." Riku observed Demyx's crestfallen expression and Ryohei's impatient look with crossed arms. "Earlier, we were scattered by someone messing with the box portal program, and now, they attacked us while we were scattered."

"But…it wouldn't make sense for you to not be attacked while I was! That's no fair!" Demyx shouted in anguish.

"Perhaps they were gauging your strength," Riku suggested. "It would make sense. Given that you just so happened to be in the same location we would be in, it would make sense to get a good estimate of your abilities and see if you would be a spanner in the works. If they do that, enemies like that of Organization XIII, could just find, fight, and then simply capture us."

"Organization XIII is most certainly our enemy!" Ryohei shouted as he clenched a fist. "It doesn't matter if they fight us! I'll beat them down with my EXTREME SPIRIT! Ambush or not, if we keep up an EXTREME SPIRIT, then we'll be able to overcome anything!"

"…Err…well, we need to find a way to get to a different world. The important thing is that we need to find everyone and stick together. Strength in numbers is an important factor in a crisis like this," Riku continued, trying to ignore Ryohei. The grating voice was tugging at his patience remorselessly. He then looked to Demyx.

"Wha—I can't come up with a portal! You've got to be kidding me! I guess when I…escaped…I couldn't use the darkness…anymore…" Demyx's voice slowed. He looked out to the distance, as if sensing something. Without warning, he took his sitar and ran out towards the shore. The musician may have been wearing a mask, but no matter how one looked at it, he had look of pure determination on his face, far surpassing any expectations the two snowcapped boys behind him had. "You two hear it too, right?"

The boys looked at each other and shrugged, but they nonetheless got their weapons ready.

Demyx said in a voice only slightly higher than a whisper, "It's the sound of someone screaming."

And at that, the earth shook with such tremendous force that it knocked all three of them to the ground.

It wasn't long after that all three of them saw two beady yellow eyes peer at them from the towering wall of water, undeniably filled with malice and hunger. A large blue and yellow hornlike appendage poked out from the wave, and proceeded to reveal the rest of its head to the combatants. The beast gave a blood-curdling roar before spreading its wings in an intimidating fashion, immediately causing the tidal wave to disperse, that itself causing a short shower around the beach. The beast surely was a creature to be feared, as its roar was still drowning out the crashing waves of the surf against the jagged rocks surrounding them. The creature had a massive dragon-like appearance, with rough blue and indigo wings, and a sharp, spiked tail.

Even hot-blooded Ryohei was taken aback by its appearance, but he saw the person that Demyx was referring to. In one of the large Heartless's claws was a young girl. However, what caught his eye was that the girl had the scaly tail of a fish from the waist down.

Riku took his keyblade in hand and raised it high above his head. "Thundaga!" the keyblade wielder cried out.

The previously clear sky suddenly turned an ashen gray with clouds floating overhead, and produced an array of lightning that hit the Wavecrest heartless square in the head, causing it to roar out in agony. It temporarily held something of a death glare at Riku before crying out once more and flapping its wings. A tidal wave was slowly approaching the beach that they were on, but it seemed to slow to a halt.

"Don't worry guys!" Demyx assured them with a confident grin plastered on his face. "If it uses any watery attacks, I'll stop them! Just rescue the damsel!" The musician proceeded to skillfully play his instrument without any hitches, and also caused spouts of water to batter the Wavecrest from different directions.

"All right! We're going to do this in an EXTREME FASHION!" Ryohei put his Vongola box and ring together to bring out his box weapon: a female armored kangaroo with boxing gloves, cannons mounted on her back, and golden-yellow sun flames being emitted all over her body. "Let's go, Kangaryu!"

Kangaryu aimed its cannons at Ryohei, and fired two shots in the boxer's direction. The items coated in sun flames latched onto Ryohei's feet, revealing themselves to be boots. After returning Kangaryuu to her box, Ryohei rose up in the air and proceeded to assault the heartless. Ryohei took a nosedive in order to dodge the sweeping motion of the heartless's wing and delivered a focused punch to its underside.

Riku was momentarily surprised about Ryohei's possession of a box animal, but went back to continuing his attack on the Wavecrest. (_I have to avoid using a fire spell! Who knows what would happen if I did! I…I just have to play it safe._) Riku jumped up several meters to strike the Wavecrest on its head. The Wavecrest, despite its large size, managed to barely dodge Riku's attack, but the keyblade wielder managed to somersault onto the creature's back. Grinning, Riku was about to slice off the heartless's wing, but caught something in the corner of his eye.

"EXTREME HIGH SPEED ROCKET!"

Ryohei's hardened fist slammed into the curved front of the creature's head, causing it to writhe in agony and thrash about. Riku was thrown off the heartless's back in the ensuing confusion and launched headfirst into the water.

"We really suck as a team…to the extreme—oh wait! Hey, that rhymed!" Demyx murmured to himself as he strummed along on his sitar. His water spouts were damaging the Wavecrest, but not by much, considering that the creature itself was a water-elemental. Both Riku and Ryohei were contact fighters, but Ryohei could easily close the distance with his flying boots, leaving Riku as the only one without a means to easily attack their flying adversary. "But...it's easy for him to use magic, isn't it? Oh, but then, there's the mermaid to consider. We don't want her getting hurt…"

"Demyx! Heads up!"

Demyx frantically looked up and saw the Wavecrest turn all the way around and barely ducked when its tail followed soon after with deadly momentum. The sharp edges of its tail managed to swiftly cut through the very tips of the boy's hair, making Demyx acknowledge that had he not moved sooner, his corpse would've been lying in a pool of his own blood while his detached head would roll off somewhere.

"Wow…that was really close…to the extreme!" Demyx shouted out to no one in particular. One would think that the Heartless didn't hold a candle to the musician, given his easygoing nature in the otherwise heated battle. "Hey, I actually dodged that one, Riku!" The musician energetically waved to the keyblade wielder. After seeing Riku grimace, Demyx proceeded to glare at the Heartless. "We're totally going to kick your ass! That's right!"

Riku put an exasperated hand against an equally exasperated forehead, wishing that Demyx would stop acting like he'd just won a snowball fight. He dodged another swipe of the tail by the Wavecrest and leapt onto it. He ran along the creature's back and quickly slashed through its wing, causing it to thrash about. To avoid the predicament from before, Riku quickly leapt back onto the beach with a smirk.

"Good job, Riku!" Ryohei called out. "Now I can deal the EXTREME finishing blow!"

Ryohei sped forward, about to land a Maximum Cannon punch, until he halted himself and got a good distance away from the monster. The creature simply floated there, with no sign of movement until the wing that was supposedly cut off was regenerated. Undeterred, Ryohei decided to wear it down with less powerful attacks.

Demyx's confident face melted back to one of frustration as he started to raise his right hand, preparing to strum on his sitar. However, something other than terror had taken control of him.

"My arm…" he choked out in a strained voice.

Riku turned his way before dodging another lazy tail swipe from the Wavecrest. "Demyx, what's wrong?"

Demyx's raised arm simply hung there, unmoving. His fingers could only twitch ever so slightly as the musician made pitiful attempts to escape this paralyzed state.

The Wavecrest heartless roared louder than it had done before, which was almost deafening. Then, the tidal wave attack that was thwarted before had resurfaced, heading straight towards the shore at an alarming speed.

"Let's see how you like this!" Riku boasted, raising the keyblade high above his head and shouted, "Thundaga!"

It eventually took Ryohei's blurred speech to reach him before he realized that the attack wouldn't come. With unexpected difficulty, Riku instead pointed the keyblade at the Heartless and then—

_FIRAGA._

"Riku! What're you—!" Ryohei managed before he noticed that his sleeves were on fire. After putting them out, he noticed the smoldering wreckage that used to be the Wavecrest Heartless.

The creature was covered head to tail in flames that alternated between indigo and violet, giving the Wavecrest the appearance of an illusion that was starting to fade. However, it was far from that. The translucent flames revealed exposed and bloodied flesh, along with what should be called its skin peeling off, leaving wisps of darkness to intermingle with the flames that produced them. The creature's eyes and mouth gushed out improbable amounts of blood, invading the previously crystal clear water beneath it. The creature and flew in indeterminable patterns, writhing in pain and agony. It's wings reached upward, as if clawing for the sunlight it's atrophied eyes could no longer see.

And Ryohei could hear what Demyx had heard before the battle had started not too long ago. What sounded like a young woman's tortured and agonized screams filled his ears, begging.

_KILL ME KILL ME END ALL MY PAIN PLEASE DON'T LET ME SUFFER LIKE THIS IT HURTS KILL ME HELP ME STOP IT MOMMY DADDY MAKE IT STOP KILL ME IT HURTS PLEASE KILL ME NOW PLEASE KILL ME NOW PLEASE KILL ME NOW KILL ME NOW KILL ME NOW KILL ME NOW KILL ME KILL ME KILL ME **KILL ME KILL ME KILL ME KILL ME** __**KILL ME—**_

"ZANTETSUKEN!" Riku cried out in a voice as loud as his lungs would allow.

The influx of pained screams stopped abruptly as soon as Riku had swiftly cleaved the monster in two. It was so sudden that it had caught Ryohei off guard when what remained of the creature had crashed into the shore and caused water to go flying everywhere.

"Th-thank God that wasn't blood…" Ryohei stuttered to himself.

The boxer floated to the ground, and walked over to where Riku and Demyx were standing, stock still. Had they heard what he heard?

"Hey, guys—" Ryohei started.

"What the hell was that!" Demyx shouted, distraught and outright confused. "Why did the Heartless do that! It-It's n-never happened before—I mean, WHAT WAS THAT!"

"…" Riku simply stared at the sky, much to his companion's confusion.

"Riku, do you have any idea of what happened right now?" Ryohei struggled to articulate calmly.

Riku stood there for a few moments, watching the clouds above go by, until he blinked a few times, alerting the two to his return to the world. "Wh-what just happened?" He asked them.

"W-We were hoping that you could tell us," Demyx was almost in tears now. "I-I don't know what just happened! It was just terrifying!"

Ryohei was about to concur, but then he spotted a light coming from the "corpse" of the Wavecrest. He alerted the other two to its presence before returning his attention to it. The light was small, but it glowed brilliantly. It then sped over in their direction and hovered in front of Demyx.

"What's happening now?" Demyx asked frantically as he tentatively grabbed it out of the air. He opened his hands to reveal a blue box that was simply designed, with wavelike curves adorning its sides. A small sliver of light had also attached itself to Demyx's middle finger, showing that it came with a matching blue ring. "I-If I wasn't scared out of my boots right now, I'd almost be excited to have this thing…"

Riku was pleasantly surprised at the outcome, but was still troubled over what the hell had just happened. The keyblade master looked over at the "corpse" once more, taking a long time before finally spotting a weak, almost nonexistent light. Examining it further, he realized that it was a heart. It flew up in the air, spinning slowly until…

"WHAT!" Riku shouted in anger and confusion.

The heart started to shake violently, until wisps of darkness started to claw at it. It wrapped around the heart, almost suffocating it, until barely visible jagged white cracks lined its surface. Then, like glass, it shattered into pieces before disappearing altogether.

"No…it can't be!" Riku shouted once more. "W-We couldn't have…!"

"Destroyed a heart…" Demyx articulated slowly, just as devastated as the keyblade master.

* * *

Owl proceeded to escort the girl to a large clearing in the forest, but it wasn't the tree that was significantly larger than all the others that caught her attention. It was the garden of assorted fruits and vegetables that was neatly arranged in front of the aforementioned tree. However, a few carrots seemed to be growing at a much slower rate than the rest of the batch.

"Whoever takes this garden must be a very patient person," the girl remarked.

"Indeed, our Rabbit is certainly very patient, but more often than not he has a rather short fuse," Owl replied. However, he then went on to state that his great Aunt Ophelia was very much the same, which was something that the girl had no choice but to listen to as they went up to the front door. "Ahem, Rabbit, good sir—are you there?"

After a short while, a rather meek reply came from behind the door. "Yes…I'm here." It was noticeably coated with some disdain.

"I see, I see!" Owl chuckled. "Though it is a fine day to be out and about, would it be alright if we asked to come in?"

The door slowly swung open, revealing a somewhat sorrowful yellow Rabbit with honey coating his fingers. Rabbit looked upwards at the visitor and newcomer and nodded. "Oh! You didn't bring Tigger with you! Oh yes, come right inside."

The two walked inside, with some discomfort due to the small size. The girl gazed about in wonder inside the residence. It was somewhat disorganized, with mismatched plates and food lining makeshift shelves, and dozens upon dozens of "hunny" pots scattered about. However, what surprised her most was the possibly unnaturally colored bear cub sitting by the table, looking absolutely bloated.

"Oh, Pooh bear, my good sir, it seems Rabbit invited you for lunch again?" Owl asked the bear.

"Oh yes! But I'm afraid I must go," Pooh answered in a rather enthusiastic voice. "Thank you for the lunch, Rabbit!"

"Oh, are you sure you wouldn't want some more?" Rabbit asked sarcastically.

"Do you have any?" Pooh asked in anticipation.

Rabbit looked around before sighing, "No, I'm afraid I don't."

"I see…" Pooh looked crestfallen, only to regain a smile. "Well, I shall be off then!"

Pooh tried to squeeze through a neatly dug out hole behind the table, however, with an "Oof" from the odd bear, everyone knew that he became stuck.

"Oh dear, not again…"

"Rabbit, does this happen all the time?" the girl asked, pleasantly surprised by the situation.

"Unfortunately, yes. Why I'm too polite to ask him inside every time is beyond me. Would you like some tea?"

"Oh! Hello again, Lambo!" Pooh greeted from outside. "I see you've brought your friend again!"

The girl looked at the table, wondering where she could have possibly heard that name before. Then she heard shouting outside, signifying an argument between two people. The sound started to travel around to the opposite side, where the door was.

"I'm telling you, we don't have time for this, darn cow!"

A rather small, diminutive boy that looked like a cow stumbled through the doors in tears, shouting, "But Lambo wants to have a tea party!"

Following Lambo, another boy and also a familiar face, had stumbled in after him, aggravated by the small size of everything. His teeth were clenched in annoyance, but his green eyes widened at the sight of the girl.

"Y-Yuni?"

* * *

Thank you for reading One Sky Chapter 6~! (Even though I finished, I still rushed it!)

I'm so sorry for the late update! High school is exciting and fun, but tedious and tiring at the same time! I hope you can forgive this schedule slip, as well as the ones that will inevitably come our way. **Please forgive me!**

Oh yes, and I decided to experiment with dark plot elements.

Please tell me what you think of this as well as other critique please!

SEE YOU AGAIN DESU~!


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